title: A Norwegian study of the suitability of hair samples in epidemiological research of alcohol, nicotine and drug use.
abstract: A feasibility study was performed to examine the effectiveness of hair testing in determining the prevalence of drug use in a young adult population. The study included 200 randomly selected young adults in Norway. It was designed to make the collection, preparation and analysis of the samples as little resource demaning as possible. Full anonymity was provided for the participants. In total, 23.5% of the samples were positive for one or more substances (14.5%, excluding the nicotine metabolite cotinine). Of the samples, 5% were positive for at least one illegal drug, 9.5% for a medicinal drug, 11.5% for cotinine and 2.5% for the alcohol metabolite ethyl glucuronide. The preliminary findings suggest that the study protocol used to collect and analyze the samples was unable to produce results that could be generalized to the young adult population in Norway. Analysis of hair samples may underestimate the use of cannabis, alcohol, amphetamine and methamphetamine. It may, however, be done to estimate cocaine and general drug use if a sample-collection procedure different from that described in our study is used and includes information about hair length, sample length, length from the scalp, cosmetic treatment, washing and whether the samples always get washed/decontaminated prior to analysis.
authors.affiliation: Division of Forensic Medicine and Drug Abuse Research, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, PO Box 4404 Nydalen, Oslo N-0403, Norway. hier@fhi.no
authors.forename: Hilde Marie Erøy
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Lund
authors.forename: Hallvard
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gjerde
authors.forename: Sandra Monica Bach
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: de Courtade
authors.forename: Elisabeth Leere
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Oiestad
authors.forename: Asbjørg Solberg
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Christophersen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000661:Amphetamine / Q000032:analysis; D001569:Benzodiazepines / Q000032:analysis; D003042:Cocaine / Q000032:analysis; D003367:Cotinine / Q000032:analysis; D000431:Ethanol / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D005965:Glucuronates / Q000032:analysis; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs / Q000032:analysis*; D008297:Male; D008694:Methamphetamine / Q000032:analysis; D009538:Nicotine / Q000032:analysis*; D009664:Norway; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection / Q000379:methods; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D005965:Glucuronates; D013287:Illicit Drugs; D001569:Benzodiazepines; C093924:ethyl glucuronide; D000431:Ethanol; D008694:Methamphetamine; D009538:Nicotine; D000661:Amphetamine; D003042:Cocaine; D003367:Cotinine