Development Of Extraction Method For The Isolation Of Antidepressants From Human Blood

The aim of this study was to develop a new, effective sample preparation method for isolation of psychotropic drugs, such as citalopram, fluoxetine, paroxetine, sertraline and venlafaxine. In this research six, various extraction agents were investigated in order to achieve the highest efficiency of the conducted process. Moreover, three different extraction techniques were investigated: liquid-liquid extraction, ultrasound-assisted extraction and microwave-assisted extraction. The obtained extracts were analysed using ultra-efficient liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry. The conducted research indicated that the most promising extraction agent was ethyl acetate. It is the first step to develop methods enabling the reliable determination of antidepressants in whole blood for the toxicological and clinical purposes.