title: Elevated norharman plasma levels in alcoholic patients and controls resulting from tobacco smoking.
abstract: Plasma norharman and harman levels were measured by solvent extraction and HPLC with fluorescence detection in alcohol-dependent patients undergoing in-patient abstinence treatment and in control subjects. In both groups, randomly collected samples from smokers contained higher mean norharman levels than those from non-smokers. In three volunteers norharman concentrations rose sharply after smoking of one or two cigarettes and declined to near-basal levels within one hour after one cigarette. When 12 patients kept a smoking-free interval of at least 6 h, they had similarly low plasma norharman concentrations (20 +/- 8 pg/ml) as 18 non-smoking control subjects (17 +/- 8 pg/ml) or as 13 smoking controls who had abstained from smoking (20 +/- 6 pg/ml). Ten of the patients smoked one cigarette and within 5-10 min attained norharman levels of 177 +/- 147 pg/ml plasma. The high prevalence of smokers among chronic alcoholics probably explains the previous finding of elevated norharman plasma levels in these patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Toxicology, University of Tubingen, Germany.
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Breyer-Pfaff
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wiatr
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Stevens
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Gaertner
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mundle
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mann
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000097:blood*; D002243:Carbolines / Q000097:blood*; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D005260:Female; D006247:Harmine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000097:blood / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010947:Plants, Toxic; D012907:Smoking / Q000097:blood*; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D014026:Nicotiana
chemical_list: D002243:Carbolines; D006247:Harmine; C010262:norharman