LC–MS-MS Determination of 25 Antipsychotic Drugs and Metabolites in Urine for Medication Compliance Monitoring

Abstract

Abstract A liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS-MS) method was developed for 25 antipsychotic drugs and their metabolite in urine for monitoring medication compliance of mentally disordered criminals on probation. Target compounds were extracted with a solid-phase extraction technique using a newly developed hydrophilic-lipophilic balanced sorbent to remove interferences and minimize the matrix effect (ME). Extracted sample was injected into the LC–MS-MS with an electrospray ionization source in positive mode and multiple-reaction monitoring mode. The analytes were separated and detected within 10 minutes using a reversed-phase column with a gradient elution method using 0.1% formic acid in water and 0.1% formic acid in methanol as mobile phase. The validation parameters were evaluated as follows: selectivity, limit of detection, lower limit of quantification (LLOQ), linearity, accuracy and precision, stability, dilution integrity, recovery (RE), ME and process efficiency (PE). The LLOQs were 0.1 to 2.0 ng/mL, and determination coefficients of the calibration curve were above 0.9943 over the concentration ranges. The intra-and inter-day accuracy ranged from −10.4% to 9.9% and from −9.6% to 9.4%, while the intra-and inter-day precision were within 10.7% and 9.9%. The bench-top and long-term stability ranged from 92.1% to 109.5% and 88.7% to 111.6%, respectively. The reproducibility of auto-sampler stability was <10% for all analytes. The accuracy and precision of dilution integrity ranged from −11.7% to 10.5% and 0.4% to 9.9%, respectively. The relative standard deviation of RE and ME was from 0.6% to 6.6% and 0.5% to 3.9%, respectively, while that of PE was 1.3% to 4.5%. The developed LC–MS-MS method for medication compliance monitoring was successfully applied to urine samples from mentally disordered probationers and determined to be one of effective ways for preventing the recurrence of mentally disordered crimes.