title: Sertraline in paired blood plasma and breast-milk samples from nursing mothers.
abstract: Paired blood and breast-milk samples were collected from 10 nursing mothers receiving sertraline. Samples were collected at steady state when the patients had been taking stable doses of 50-150 mg/day over several weeks. Sertraline concentrations in both fluids were determined using a specific, validated HPLC method. Plasma and milk concentrations showed a wide inter-individual variability for the same dose. Mean plasma concentrations were linearly related to dose, but this was not the case for breast-milk concentrations. An overall milk to plasma ratio of 1.76+/-1.72 was recorded. The average dose to the infants ranged from 1.1 to 31.1 &mgr;g/kg, which is less than 2 per cent of the maternal dose per day. Further studies are necessary to determine if these doses are detrimental to the development of the infant. Copyright 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Austin & Repatriation Medical Centre, Heidelberg, Victoria 3084, Australia.
authors.forename: Seetal
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dodd
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stocky
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Buist
authors.forename: Graham D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Burrows
authors.forename: Kay
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Maguire
authors.forename: Trevor R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Norman