This study was to ascertain the effect of naloxone and dexamethasone on vasopressin and beta-endorphin release in the rat during inescapable electric foot shock stress. Plasma vasopressin concentrations were not affected by electric foot shock in vehicle-treated rats, but were raised significantly by the stress in animals pretreated with naloxone. The stress-induced increase in plasma beta-endorphin-like immunoreactivity (beta-EI) was similar whether the rats had received naloxone or not. Plasma beta-EI consisted of equal amounts of beta-endorphin-like and beta-lipotropin-like material as revealed by gel filtration. Dexamethasone almost abolished the foot shock-induced increase in plasma beta-EI and, in the presence of dexamethasone, stress was now effective in elevating plasma vasopressin concentrations. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that beta-endorphin, released from the anterior pituitary, inhibits the release of vasopressin from the posterior lobe of the pituitary gland during foot shock-induced stress.