Abstract
Hair testing was used to investigate the prevalence of unsuspected exposure to drugs of abuse in a group of children presenting to an urban paediatric emergency department without suggestive signs or symptoms. Hair samples were obtained from 114 children between 24 months and 10 years of age attending the emergency room of Hospital del Mar in Barcelona, Spain. Hair samples from the accompanying parent were also collected. The samples were analyzed for the presence of opiates, cocaine, amphetamines, and cannabinoids by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Parental sociodemographics and possible drug of abuse history were recorded. Hair samples from twenty-three children (20.1%) were positive for cocaine (concentration range 0.15–3.81 ng/mg hair), those of thirteen children (11.4%) to cannabinoids (Δ9-THC concentration range 0.05–0.54 ng/mg hair), with four samples positive to codeine (0.1–0.25 ng/mg hair), one positive for 2.09 ng methadone per mg hair and one to 6-MAM (0.42 ng/mg hair) and morphine (0. 15 ng/mg hair) . In 69.5 and 69.2% of the positive cocaine and cannabinoids cases respectively, drugs was also found in the hair of accompanying parent. Parental sociodemographics were not associated with children exposure to drugs of abuse. However, the behavioural patterns with potential harmful effects for the child’s health (e.g., tobacco smoking, cannabis, benzodiazepines and/or antidepressants use) were significantly higher in the parents of exposed children. In the light of the obtained results (28% overall children exposure to drugs of abuse) and in agreement with 2009 unsuspected 23% cocaine exposure in pre-school children from the same hospital, we support general hair screening to disclose exposure to drugs of abuse in children from risky environments to provide the basis for specific social and health interventions.
Highlights
Drug testing in hair is a unique analysis in pharmacotoxicology for establishing a history of consumption or passive exposure for up to several months disclosing a possible chronic active or passive intake of an abused drug [1]
Our study highlighted an extremely high incidence of unsuspected exposure to drugs of abuse by hair testing in children from a low socioeconomic status cohort in a Mediterranean city [16]
In case of children we considered that none of them could have been assimilated to a consumer since they were younger than 10 years of age, nor intrauterine exposure could have been occurred since they were older than 2 years of age and examined hair strand was of 4 cm, corresponding to the previous 4–5 months
Summary
Drug testing in hair is a unique analysis in pharmacotoxicology for establishing a history of consumption or passive exposure for up to several months disclosing a possible chronic active or passive intake of an abused drug [1]. Compared to data from other European Union member states, in 2011 Spain showed the highest percentage of cocaine and cannabis consumption: 2.3 and 10.2% annual prevalence in the general population (15–64 years) with 30% consumption of both drugs and cocaine use levels exceeding even those reported from America [10,11]. Amphetamines and heroin consumption significantly decreased to a 0.7 and 0.1% annual consumption in the general population [11]. This alarming consumption explained prenatal exposure figures of 2.6, 4.7 and 5.3% to cocaine, heroin and cannabis in newborns from a Barcelona (Spain) cohort in 2004 [12,13] and in 2009 resulted in repeated exposure to cocaine in 23.3% infants and pre-school children living in a domestic environment of drug abusers [9]
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More From: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
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