The cerebral kinetics and dynamics of thiopentone after infusions of 250, 500, and 750 mg over 2 min were examined in chronically instrumented sheep (6, 6, and 5 sheep per dose, respectively). The cerebral kinetics were studied by rapid sampling of arterial and dorsal sagittal sinus blood (afferent and efferent blood for the brain, respectively) for 40 min, and could be described by a single flow-limited compartment when arterial concentrations and cerebral blood flow were used as forcing input functions. The half-lives of equilibration between blood and the brain were estimated to be 0.67 (SEM = 0.07), 0.57 (0.03) and 0.74 (0.05) min for the 250-, 500- and 750-mg doses, respectively, showing that the cerebral concentrations of thiopentone rapidly equilibrate with the afferent blood concentration. Simultaneous pharmacodynamic measurements included cerebral blood flow via a Doppler flowmeter on the sagittal sinus, and an index of the depth of anesthesia based on an algesimetry method. Thiopentone transiently reduced cerebral blood flow to 82 (SEM = 3), 80% (7), and 74% (10) of baseline for the 250-, 500-, and 750-mg doses, respectively, and failure to account for drug-induced changes in cerebral blood flow in the model overestimated the apparent volume of the brain by 12% for the 500-mg dose. For the 500-mg dose, the changes in cerebral blood flow could be accounted for by an effect compartment with a half-life of 0.82 min for arterial blood, and 0.00 min for sagittal sinus blood, showing the effluent brain concentrations were in equilibrium with this drug effect. The time course of the depth of anesthesia for the 250-mg dose could be accounted for by an effect compartment with a half-life of 1.33 min for arterial blood, and 0.41 min for sagittal sinus blood. Thus, the rate of equilibration between blood and brain could not account for all of this delay. It is concluded that after short-term administration thiopentone equilibrated rapidly with the brain, and that this is consistent with the observation that the magnitude of its clinically relevant effects closely follow the time course of the arterial blood concentrations.