Forty-four subjects with a history of a major recurrent affective diso
rder in remission and who were either on no medication or taking a sin
gle dose of psychotropic medication were conscripted together with mat
ched controls. The fluorescent indicator fura 2 was used to measure in
tracellular calcium in platelets and estimations were made of total se
rum and ionised calcium as well as of whole blood serotonin. Intracell
ular calcium was measured in the resting state as well as after stimul
ation with thrombin, platelet activating factor and serotonin. No sign
ificant differences were found between the 17 subjects with a diagnosi
s of bipolar disorder or the 27 subjects with recurrent unipolar depre
ssion and their matched controls. Intracellular calcium measures were
significantly higher in the lithium treated group after stimulation wi
th 5HT, whereas the subjects taking tricyclic antidepressants did not
differ significantly from their controls on any measure. Serum calcium
was found to be significantly higher in those subjects taking lithium
. These findings suggest that the measurement of intracellular calcium
is not a useful trait marker in affective disorders. Lithium appears
to enhance the 5HT induced rise of intracellular calcium.