Chronic treatment with steroid contraceptive produced a decrease in dopamine and norepinephrine concentration in discrete brain areas and an increase in ascorbic acid level. We suggest that alteration in the level of biogenic amines by steroid contraceptive may have some functional correlation with the ascorbic acid concentration m rat brain. © 1991, J. A. Barth Verlag in Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart, New York. All rights reserved.