Neuroleptic-induced tardive dyskinesia has been linked to impaired iron homeostasis in the central nervous system attributed to increased iron levels. A chlorpromazine stimulatory effect upon iron uptake from 55Fe-citrate and 55Fe-transferrin by cortical synaptosome preparations of rats was recently demonstrated. The present work extends this study to other neuroleptic drugs such as thioridazine, haloperidol, clozapine and fluphenazine. Like chlorpromazine, thioridazine showed a stimulatory effect upon iron uptake from both iron donors whereas fluphenazine highly increased uptake from 55Fe-citrate but not from 55Fe-transferrin. Haloperidol and clozapine had no effect. Stimulation of iron uptake by neuroleptics is probably related to their property of calmodulin antagonism, since calmidazolium also stimulated synaptosomal iron uptake from both donors. Calmidazolium-stimulated uptake from 55Fe-citrate was approx. 5-fold when compared to control samples while uptake from 55Fe-transferrin was 250% higher. The results are in agreement with the iron uptake magnitude observed with the different drugs for the two iron donors used and the reported Ki values of neuroleptic drugs for calmodulin antagonism evaluated by the inhibition of 3',5'-monophosphate phosphodiesterase activity. Moreover, vanadate, an inhibitor of protein phosphorylation and KCl-promoted membrane depolarization, greatly inhibited iron uptake from 55Fe-citrate by both chlorpromazine-treated and untreated synaptosome preparations.