The prevalence of MDMA/MDA in both hair and urine in drug users

Hair as a Biological Indicator of Drug Use, Drug Abuse or Chronic Exposure to Environmental Toxicants

In recent years hair has become a fundamental biological specimen, alternative to the usual samples blood and urine, for drug testing in the fields of forensic toxicology, clinical toxicology and clinical chemistry. Moreover, hair-testing is now extensively used in workplace testing, as well as, on legal cases, historical research etc. This article reviews methodological and practical issues related to the application of hair as a biological indicator of drug use/abuse or of chronic exposure to environmental toxicants. Hair structure and the mechanisms of drug incorporation into it are commented. The usual preparation and extraction methods as well as the analytical techniques of hair samples are presented and commented on. The outcomes of hair analysis have been reviewed for the following categories: drugs of abuse (opiates, cocaine and related, amphetamines, cannabinoids), benzodiazepines, prescribed drugs, pesticides and organic pollutants, doping agents and other drugs or substances. Finally, the specific purpose of the hair testing is discussed along with the interpretation of hair analysis results regarding the limitations of the applied procedures.

Analytical methods for abused drugs in hair and their applications

Hair has been focused on for its usability as an alternative biological specimen to blood and urine for determining drugs of abuse in fields such as forensic and toxicological sciences because hair can be used to elucidate the long intake history of abused drugs compared with blood and urine. Hair analysis consists of several pretreatment steps, such as washing out contaminates from hair, extraction of target compounds from hair, and cleanup for instrumental analysis. Each step includes characteristic and independent features for the class of drugs, e.g., stimulants, narcotics, cannabis, and other medicaments. In this review, recently developed methods to determine drugs of abuse are summarized, and the pretreatment steps as well as the sensitivity and applicability are critically discussed.

Plasma pharmacokinetics of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine after controlled oral administration to young adults

This study examines the plasma pharmacokinetics of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and metabolites 4-hydroxy-3-methoxymethamphetamine (HMMA), 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA), and 4-hydroxy-3-methoxyamphetamine (HMA) in young adults for up to 143 hours after drug administration. Seventeen female and male participants (black, white, and Hispanic) received placebo, low (1.0 mg/kg), and high (1.6 mg/kg) oral MDMA doses (comparable to recreational doses) in a double-blind, randomized, balanced, within-subject design while residing on a closed research unit. Doses were separated by 1 week or more. A fully validated two-dimensional gas chromatography/mass spectrometry method simultaneously quantified MDMA, HMMA, MDA, and HMA. Calibration curves were MDA, 1 to 100 ng/mL; HMA, 2.5 to 100 ng/mL; and MDMA and HMMA, 2.5 to 400 ng/mL. Mean +/- standard deviation maximum plasma concentrations (C(max)) of 162.9 +/- 39.8 and 171.9 +/- 79.5 ng/mL were observed for MDMA and HMMA, respectively, after low-dose MDMA. After the high dose, mean MDMA Cmax significantly increased to 291.8 +/- 76.5 ng/mL, whereas mean HMMA C(max) was unchanged at 173.5 +/- 66.3 ng/mL. High intersubject variability in C(max) was observed. Mean MDA C(max) were 8.4 +/- 2.1 (low) and 13.8 +/- 3.8 (high) ng/mL. HMA Cmax were 3.5 +/- 0.4 and 3.9 +/- 0.9 ng/mL after the low and high doses, respectively. AUC infinity displayed similar trends to C(max), demonstrating nonlinear pharmacokinetics. Times of last plasma detection were generally HMA < MDA < MDMA < HMMA. Mean half-lives (t1/2) of MDMA, MDA, and HMMA were approximately 7 to 8 hours, 10.5 to 12.5 hours, and 11.5 to 13.5 hours, respectively. HMA t1/2 showed high variability. Mean MDMA volume of distribution was constant for low and high doses; clearance was significantly higher after the low dose. This study presents MDMA plasma pharmacokinetic data for the first time from blacks and females as well as measurement of HMMA and HMA concentrations after low and high MDMA doses and more frequent and extended plasma sampling than in prior studies.

A sensitive semi-micro column HPLC method with peroxyoxalate chemiluminescence detection and column switching for determination of MDMA-related compounds in hair

A sensitive semi-micro column HPLC method with peroxyoxalate chemiluminescence (POCL) detection and column switching has been developed for simultaneous determination of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and related compounds, for example 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine, methamphetamine, and amphetamine, in hair. After digestion of the hair with 1 mol L-1 sodium hydroxide the compounds were extracted with n-heptane and derivatized with 4-(N,N-dimethylaminosulfonyl)-7-fluoro-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole. A mixture of hydrogen peroxide and bis(2,4,5-trichloro-6-carbopentoxyphenyl)oxalate in acetonitrile was used as post-column CL reagent. Calibration plots showed linearity was good (r=0.999); detection limits were 0.02-0.16 ng mg-1 hair at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3. The precision of the method, as RSD (n=5), in intra-day and inter-day assays was better than 5.0 and 6.9%, respectively. The proposed method was sufficiently sensitive to detect low ng mg-1 levels of MDMA and related compounds in hair, and could be used for quantification of the compounds in hair samples from patients treated in a chemical dependency unit.

The study of metabolite-to-parent drug ratios of methamphetamine and methylenedioxymethamphetamine in hair

The metabolite-to-parent drug ratios were determined in the hair of 2444 methamphetamine (MA) abusers who had produced MA-positive hair results from 2001 to May 2005 and in the hair of 53 ecstasy abusers who had produced positive methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) hair results from 2002 to May 2005. For the hair analyses, hair strands were washed, cut into small pieces and extracted for 20 h in 1 mL methanol containing 1% HCl. Drugs in the extract were determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) using selective ion monitoring after derivatization with trifluoroacetic anhydride. The six range groups were divided as follows on the basis of MA concentrations in hair (n = 2389): 0.5-5 ng/mg (n = 950), 5-10 ng/mg (n = 582), 10-20 ng/mg (n = 503), 20-30 ng/mg (n = 160), 30-40 ng/mg (n = 80), more than 40 ng/mg (n = 114) to assess the correlations between MA concentrations and metabolite-to-parent drug ratios. In groups of higher MA concentrations, lower ratios of AP/MA were found, and there was a statistically significant difference among six range groups. Comparisons of age groups (tens, twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, and sixties) and male and female subjects for the ratios of AP/MA showed a statistically significant difference. The detection of metabolites and the parent drug with reasonable ratios was found to be a useful indicator for distinguishing internal drug incorporation from external contamination. In our study, MA users can produce 0.4-116% (mean = 9%) of amphetamine (AP) concentrations in hair, and ecstasy users 1-110% (mean = 12%) of methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA) in appropriately washed hair samples.

State of the art in hair analysis for detection of drug and alcohol abuse

Hair differs from other materials used for toxicological analysis because of its unique ability to serve as a long-term storage of foreign substances with respect to the temporal appearance in blood. Over the last 20 years, hair testing has gained increasing attention and recognition for the retrospective investigation of chronic drug abuse as well as intentional or unintentional poisoning. In this paper, we review the physiological basics of hair growth, mechanisms of substance incorporation, analytical methods, result interpretation and practical applications of hair analysis for drugs and other organic substances. Improved chromatographic-mass spectrometric techniques with increased selectivity and sensitivity and new methods of sample preparation have improved detection limits from the ng/mg range to below pg/mg. These technical advances have substantially enhanced the ability to detect numerous drugs and other poisons in hair. For example, it was possible to detect previous administration of a single very low dose in drug-facilitated crimes. In addition to its potential application in large scale workplace drug testing and driving ability examination, hair analysis is also used for detection of gestational drug exposure, cases of criminal liability of drug addicts, diagnosis of chronic intoxication and in postmortem toxicology. Hair has only limited relevance in therapy compliance control. Fatty acid ethyl esters and ethyl glucuronide in hair have proven to be suitable markers for alcohol abuse. Hair analysis for drugs is, however, not a simple routine procedure and needs substantial guidelines throughout the testing process, i.e., from sample collection to results interpretation.

Quantification of MDMA and MDA in abusers' hair samples by semi-micro column HPLC with fluorescence detection

A sensitive semi-micro column high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection method was developed for the determination of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA), methamphetamine (MP) and amphetamine (AP) in human hair. 4-(4,5-Diphenyl-1H-imidazol-2-yl)benzoyl chloride (DIB-Cl) and 1-methyl-3-phenylpropylamine were used as labeling reagent and internal standard, respectively. These drugs were extracted from hair into 5% trifluoroacetic acid in methanol, and fluorescent labeled with DIB-Cl. The separation of DIB-derivatives was achieved on a reversed-phase semi-micro ODS column with an acetonitrile-methanol-water (30:40:30, v/v/v%) mixture as a mobile phase. The limits of detection at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3 for MDMA, MDA, MP and AP were 0.25, 0.15, 0.25 and 0.19 ng/mg, respectively. Precision of intra- and inter-day assay as the relative standard deviation were in the range 1.5-6.8% (n = 5) and 2.7-4.7% (n = 5), respectively. The proposed method was highly sensitive and able to detect MDMA and its related compounds in small amounts of hair sample, and could be applied to quantification of six abusers' hair samples.