We applied transmitter washout methodology, sampling internal jugular venous plasma via a percutaneously placed catheter, to study CNS norepinephrine release in humans and its relation to peripheral sympathetic activity. Norepinephrine overflows into the venous drainage of the brain, as do its precursor, DOPA, and metabolites DHPG and MHPG, indicating that the blood-brain barrier provides an incomplete impediment to their outward flux from the brain. Pharmacological testing with two drugs which altered CNS norepinephrine turnover, the tricyclic antidepressant desipramine and the ganglionic blocker, trimethaphan, demonstrated a direct relation existed between CNS norepinephrine release and sympathetic nerve firing rates. In essential hypertension, the sympathetic activation commonly present was associated with, and possibly caused by increased CNS release of norepinephrine, manifested in elevated overflow of norepinephrine, MHPG and DHPG from the brain. Bilateral jugular sampling, coupled with a cerebral venous sinus scan to delineate the drainage pattern, demonstrated that this increased norepinephrine release was confined to subcortical forebrain regions.