Analysis of Drugs of Abuse in Hair Samples by Ultrahigh-Performance Liquid Chromatography–Tandem Mass Spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS)

Abstract

The determination at low concentrations of common psychotropic drugs is increasingly requested in hair samples for the retrospective investigation of habitual drug abuse and dependence as well as in other toxicological investigations. The dramatic improvements of the instrumentation based on liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) make the detection of tiny amounts of almost whatever drug is in hair possible, even after single-dose intake. Therefore, LC-MS/MS is gradually replacing gas chromatographic techniques in both screening and confirmation procedures, and is increasingly acknowledged as the technique of choice for hair analysis. We describe a simple procedure for the quantitative determination in hair samples of 15 common drugs of abuse, or metabolites, based on methanol extraction and direct analysis by ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS).