| SOFT - TIAFT 1998 | Poster Session 1 | Wednesday October 7, 1998 |
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DETERMINATION OF DEXTROMETHORPHAN IN DRUG ABUSER'S HAIR BY GC/MS Hwakyung Choi, Yonkyung Yang, Wontack Jin, Heesun Chung and Youngchan Yoo National Institute of Scientific Investigation, 331-1 Shinwol-dong, Yangchon-ku, Seoul, 158-097, Korea |
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Due to the easy availability, there has been a growing tendency to abuse the common medicines among young people in Korea. Zipeprol, dextromethorphan, nalbuphine and carisoprodol are among those non-controlled medicines most commonly abused. Among them, dextromethorphan has a long history of abuse. Dextromethorphan, which is an antitussive agent, produces little or no central nervous system depression, but manifestations of an acute overdose include hallucination and toxic psychosis. To obtain a hallucinogenic effect, young people usually take it in large amounts for recreational purpose.
In this study, to estimate the drug abuse history, the determination of dextromethorphan was established by GC/MS. Hair sample was washed with methanol, incubated with methanol (1% HCl) overnight at 37ºC while stirring and extracted using solid phase extraction column on a vacuum manifold. The calibration curve of dextromethorphan was linear from 5 to 1500 ng (r=0.9997). The percentage of recovery from spiked hair for dextromethorphan was 107.3, 102.7, 105.6, 98.6 and 108.6% at 25, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 ng. Hair samples of 7 out of 13 dextromethorphan abusers showed positive results for dextromethorphan. The concentration of dextromethorphan was in the range 2.3 to 466.7 ng/mg in 7 specimens. |
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