High-Performance Liquid Chromatographic Analysis of Antidepressants, Neuroleptics, and Benzodiazepines

Whether one is a toxicologist attempting to confirm drug overdose or establish cause of death, a physician/clinical chemist seeking to correlate clinical response with a serum level, or a research scientist collecting pharmacokinetic data, precise accurate analytical methods for drugs are required. Such a method, highperformance liquid chromatography (HPLC), has become an invaluable analytical tool not only in the research environment, but in clinical and forensic laboratories as well. This technique has been applied extensively to the qualitative and quantitative analysis of three groups of widely prescribed and abused mood-altering drugs-the antidepreβants, neuroleptics, and benzodiazepmes. This chapter will review the types of HPLC procedures available for the three drug groups, concentrating on methods published within the last 7 yr. Considerations pertaining to specimen collection, storage, and handling and specimen preparation prior to chromatography will be addreβed. Detailed evaluations of individual methods will not be done, and the appropriate articles should be searched for more specific information.