Plasma, oral fluid and sweat wipe ecstasy concentrations in controlled and real life conditions

Abstract

In a double-blind placebo controlled study on psychomotor skills important for car driving (Study 1), a 75mg dose of ±3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) was administered orally to 12 healthy volunteers who were known to be recreational MDMA-users. Toxicokinetic data were gathered by analysis of blood, urine, oral fluid and sweat wipes collected during the first 5h after administration. Resultant plasma concentrations varied from 21 to 295ng/ml, with an average peak concentration of 178ng/ml observed between 2 and 4h after administration. MDA concentrations never exceeded 20ng/ml. Corresponding MDMA concentrations in oral fluid, as measured with a specific LC-MS/MS method (which required only 50μl of oral fluid), generally exceeded those in plasma and peaked at an average concentration of 1215ng/ml. A substantial intra- and inter-subject variability was observed with this matrix, and values ranged from 50 to 6982ng/ml MDMA. Somewhat surprisingly, even 4–5h after ingestion, the MDMA levels in sweat only averaged 25ng/wipe.In addition to this controlled study, data were collected from 19 MDMA-users who participated in a driving simulator study (Study 2), comparing sober non-drug conditions with MDMA-only and multiple drug use conditions. In this particular study, urine samples were used for general drug screening and oral fluid was collected as an alternative to blood sampling. Analysis of oral fluid samples by LC-MS/MS revealed an average MDMA/MDEA concentration of 1121ng/ml in the MDMA-only condition, with large inter-subject variability. This was also the case in the multiple drug condition, where generally, significantly higher concentrations of MDMA, MDEA and/or amphetamine were detected in the oral fluid samples. Urine screening revealed the presence of combinations such as MDMA, MDEA, amph, cannabis, cocaine, LSD and psilocine in the multiple-drug condition.