Primary cultures of bovine adrenal medullary chromaffin cells were used to study the regulation of opioid peptide (OP) synthesis. Chromaffin cells continuously exposed to tetrabenazine, a drug that depletes cellular catecholamine stores, increase their OP contents between 32 hr and 6 days of treatment. At no time following tetrabenazine addition were increases in opiate receptor-inactive enkephalin-containing peptides (IECPs) observed. Because IECPs may serve as precursors to OPs, these results suggest increased processing of OP precursors following treatment with catecholamine-depleting drugs in addition to an increased rate of OP precursor synthesis. The increases in cellular OP levels induced by tetrabenazine were approximately proportional to the depletion in cellular catecholamines produced by this drug. Also, the effects of tetrabenazine on chromaffin cell OP and IECP contents were mimicked by inhibitors of catecholamine biosynthesis and other agents that decreased catecholamine stores, but not by supplementing the culture medium with catecholamines or catecholamine receptor agonists. Addition of 8-bromo-cAMP or forskolin, an activator of adenylate cyclase, to chromaffin cell cultures increased both OP and IECP stores. Inhibitors of cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase also increase chromaffin cell OP and IECP contents, although it is unclear whether these increases result from increased cyclic nucleotide levels. Hence, both alterations in some intracellular catecholamine pool and elevations of cAMP levels may trigger increases in the synthesis and processing of OPs and IECPs in the adrenal medullary chromaffin cell.