Trends and Advances in Separation and Detection of SSRIs and SNRIs in Biological Matrices

Ruchita Das,Y K Agrawal

doi:10.1155/2013/139459

Abstract

Nowadays antidepressant drugs like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) represent the first choice in the treatment of moderate to severe depressive illness, various phobias, and personality disorders. In spite of the therapeutic aspects, they often produce very severe and toxic effects in deliberate and accidental cases of poisoning. These are also considered as date-rape drugs used for drugged victims for raping or robbing. Therefore, in recent years, their analyses in different biological matrices for clinical and toxicological analysis purposes has been a target worthy of interest. Thus, the review focuses on recent advancements of various separation techniques like chromatography and electrophoresis that are concernd with the determination of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor and selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor drugs and their metabolites in various biological matrices. In addition to this, a critical discussion on analytical approaches has also been incorporated, suggesting their applicability and limitations for further implementations. Thus, this paper will definitely help in the selection and development of proper analytical methodologies to achieve satisfactory results, better scientific understanding, and test interpretation.

Highlights

Depression is a common and widespread mental disorder affecting millions of people worldwide [1]
Enantioseparations by capillary electrophoresis (CE) are generally achieved by adding a chiral selector to the running buffer, which reduces the cost of analysis with respect to some techniques such as HPLC chiral column
The general trend observed in recent years for analysis of new generation antidepressant drugs is mostly emphasising separation techniques like liquid and gas chromatography in combination with various detectors

Summary

Introduction

Depression is a common and widespread mental disorder affecting millions of people worldwide [1]. The highly prescribed classes of this category are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) (fluoxetine (FLX), citalopram (CIT), paroxetine (PAR), sertraline (SER), and fluvoxamine (FLV)) and selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) (venlafaxine (VLF), milnacipran (MCP), and duloxetine (DLX)) (Figure 1) [8]. These drugs are created with improved margin of safety but need monitoring due to their side effects and rapid abusiveness, because they are likely to produce mental alertness that increases physical activities [9,10,11,12]. They were considered as date-rape drugs, used for the purpose of drugging unsuspected victims for raping or robbing [16]

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