Determination of antidepressants in human postmortem blood, brain tissue, and hair using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

Sarah M R Wille, Els A De Letter, Michel H A Piette, Lien K Van Overschelde, Carlos H Van Peteghem, Willy E Lambert

Laboratory of Toxicology, Ghent University, Harelbekestraat 72, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.

International journal of legal medicine 2009 Nov

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A gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric (GC-MS) method in positive ion chemical ionization mode in combination with a solid phase extraction was optimized for new-generation antidepressants and their metabolites in postmortem blood, brain tissue, and hair. Twelve antidepressants and their active metabolites (i.e., mirtazapine, viloxazine, venlafaxine, citalopram, mianserin, reboxetine, fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, sertraline, maprotiline, melitracen, paroxetine, desmethylfluoxetine, desmethylmianserin, desmethylmirtazapine, desmethylsertraline, desmethylmaprotiline, desmethylcitalopram, and didesmethylcitalopram) could be quantified. In this article, in addition to the validation of the GC-MS method, four postmortem cases are discussed to demonstrate the usefulness of the described method in forensic toxicology. In these cases, sertraline, fluoxetine, citalopram, and trazodone in combination with their active metabolites were quantified. Blood concentrations ranged from subtherapeutic to toxic concentrations, while brain to plasma ratios ranged from 0.8 to 17. Hair concentrations ranged from 0.4 to 2.5 ng/mg depending on the compound and hair segment.

Citation

Sarah M R Wille, Els A De Letter, Michel H A Piette, Lien K Van Overschelde, Carlos H Van Peteghem, Willy E Lambert. Determination of antidepressants in human postmortem blood, brain tissue, and hair using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. International journal of legal medicine. 2009 Nov;123(6):451-8