TESTING FOR DRUGS IN HAIR - CRITICAL-REVIEW OF CHROMATOGRAPHIC PROCEDURES SINCE 1992

Up to now, more than 50 pharmaceuticals or drugs of abuse have been re ported to be detectable in hair after oral or parenteral administratio n. The present paper reviews the Literature devoted to drug testing in hair that has been published since 1992. Procedures for the detection of opiates, cocaine, amphetamines and cannabis in hair are described in detail. In particular, the papers on benzodiazepines show an increa sing number of procedures using negative chemical ionisation with GC-M S and diode array detection with HPLC in hair analysis. For the most i mportant benzodiazepines, diazepam and flunitrazepam, reliable methods now exist. On the other hand, the problem of the detecting tetrahydro cannabinol metabolites using different techniques is not yet solved. S ome progress is observed in the detection of low dose drugs, like fent anyl and its derivatives or LSD. For most of the analyses using chroma tographic techniques, the main data on sample preparation and analytic al determinations are listed. Some new findings, based on the experien ce of the authors, are also added. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.