Catalysis of the reduction of vanadate by psychotropic drugs

It has been suggested that vanadium may be of aetiological importance in manic depressive psychosis. Therefore, the ability of psychotropic drugs to catalyze the reduction of vanadate ion by reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) was investigated. The most active drug was methylene blue but all the phenothiazines and all the monoamine oxidase inhibitors tested showed catalytic activity. A large number of drugs showed no catalytic activity, eg. tricyclic antidepressants and benzodiazepines.