The binding of 3H-alaproclate, a selective 5-hydroxytryptamine uptake inhibitor, to membranes prepared from the rat cerebral cortex was investigated by a filtration technique. It was found that 3H-alaproclate bound with high affinity to three or four different sites and to one low affinity site. The binding to two of these sites was displaceable by 1 microM proadifen (SKF 525A), an inhibitor of drug metabolism. From iterative nonlinear regression analysis the KD-values of these sites were calculated to about 1 and 28 nM and the Bmax values 1.5 and 19 pmol/g wet tissue, respectively. The high affinity binding that was not displaceable by proadifen but by 10 microM alaproclate had KD-values of 1 nM and 6 nM and Bmax-values of 0.4 and 2 pmol/g wet tissue. The low affinity binding that was not displaceable by proadifen had a KD-value of about 200 nM and a Bmax-value of about 90 pmol/g tissue. The possible relationship between the proadifen sensitive high affinity binding of 3H-alaproclate and the brain cytochrome P-450 is discussed.