Amitriptyline, clomipramine, and doxepin adsorption onto sodium polystyrene sulfonate

Abstract

Purpose of the study. Comparative in vitro studies were carried out to determine the adsorption characteristics of 3 drugs on activated charcoal (AC) and sodium polystyrene sulfonate (SPS). Activated charcoal (AC) has been long used as gastric decontamination agent for tricyclic antidepressants (TCA). Methods. Solutions containing drugs (amitriptyline, clomipramine, or doxepin) and variable amount of AC or SPS were incubated for 30 minutes. Results: At pH 1.2 the adsorbent: drug mass ratio varied from 2: 1 to 40: 1 for AC, and from 0.4: 1 to 8: 1 for SPS. UV-VIS spectrophotometer was used for the determination of free drug concentrations. The qmax of amitriptyline was 0.055 mg/mg AC and 0.574 mg/mg SPS, qmax of clomipramine was 0.053 mg/mg AC and 0.572 mg/mg SPS, and qmax of doxepin was 0.045 mg/mg AC and 0.556 mg/mg SPS. The results of adsorption experiments with SPS revealed higher values for the qmax parameters in comparison with AC. Conclusion: In vitro gastric decontamination experiments for antidepressant amitriptyline, clomipramine, and doxepin showed that SPS has higher qmax values than the corresponding experiments with AC. Therefore, we suggest SPS is a better gastric decontaminating agent for the management of acute TCA intoxication. © 2014 Jamshidzadeh et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.