The reserpine model and the reduced monoamine hypothesis of the depressive symptom spectrum suggest that the reserpine-sensitive brain vesicular monoamine transporter (VMT) is a candidate for susceptibility to affective disorder. VMT non-selectively accumulates cytoplasmic biogenic monoamine neurotransmitters into the storage vesicles of presynaptic neurons and blood platelets. Complementary DNA (cDNA) synthesized from platelet VMT mRNA was analyzed in 17 patients meeting DSM-III-R diagnostic criteria for major depressive or bipolar disorder and in four healthy controls, using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification and direct sequencing. PCR sequencing of the protein coding region failed to reveal changes in the deduced amino acid sequence of the platelet/brain VMT (∼ 36 000 base pairs sequence screened). The results indicate that alterations in the primary structure of the VMT are not generally involved in the pathogenesis of unipolar depression and manic depressive illness.