title: Review: Drug concentrations in hair and their relevance in drug facilitated crimes.
abstract: Segmental hair analysis can provide valuable retrospective information on the history of drug exposure in victims of drug facilitated crimes (DFC). This is now possible with availability of sensitive tandem MS techniques such as GC-MS/MS and LC-MS/MS allowing drugs to be detected at pg/mg concentrations after a single dose. In this review hair concentrations of 35 psychoactive drugs given in 20 controlled dose studies are reviewed and compared to the 25 different drugs detected in reported case work. The most common drugs were the benzodiazepines and related hypnotics, gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), ketamine and methamphetamine. Those concentrations reported in DFC were mostly similar or higher than that seen in controlled dose studies. The factors that affecting interpretation of segmental hair results including hair color, growth rates, sample preparation and surface contamination are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine and Department of Forensic Medicine, Monash University, 65 Kavanagh Street, Southbank, VIC 3006, Australia; Department of Forensic Toxicology, Institute of Forensic Sciences, Ministry of Justice, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Forensic Medicine, China.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Toxicology, Institute of Forensic Sciences, Ministry of Justice, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Forensic Medicine, China.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine and Department of Forensic Medicine, Monash University, 65 Kavanagh Street, Southbank, VIC 3006, Australia. Electronic address: olaf.drummer@monash.edu.
authors.forename: Olaf H
authors.initials: OH
authors.lastname: Drummer
mesh_terms: D002853:Chromatography, Liquid; D019548:Crime Victims; D053593:Forensic Toxicology; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000032:analysis*; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000032:analysis*; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection / Q000379:methods; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs
keywords: Drug facilitated sexual assault (DFSA); Hair; Mass spectrometry (MS); Review; Segmental analysis