title: Quantification of antidepressants using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.
abstract: Antidepressants are of great interest to clinical and forensic toxicologists as they are frequently used in suicidal gestures; they can be the source of drug interactions and some have narrow therapeutic indices making the potential for toxicity more likely. There are five categories of antidepressants based on function and/or structure. These are monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOI), cyclic antidepressants including tricyclic and tetracyclic compounds (TCA), selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRI), and atypical compounds. This method is designed to detect the presence of antidepressant drugs in blood/serum, urine, and tissue specimens using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) following liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) and identified by relative retention times and mass spectra.
authors.affiliation: North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and Department of Pathology and Laboratory, Medicine University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Ruth E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Winecker
mesh_terms: D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000097:blood* / Q000627:therapeutic use / Q000652:urine*; D000929:Antidepressive Agents, Tricyclic / Q000097:blood / Q000627:therapeutic use / Q000652:urine; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008996:Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors / Q000097:blood / Q000627:therapeutic use / Q000652:urine; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors / Q000097:blood / Q000627:therapeutic use / Q000652:urine
chemical_list: D000928:Antidepressive Agents; D000929:Antidepressive Agents, Tricyclic; D008996:Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors