LC-MS/MS quantification of olanzapine in hair after alkaline digestion

Olanzapine (OLZ), a second-generation antipsychotic drug, is effective in the treatment of acute psychosis, schizophrenia, agitation, bipolar mania, and other psychiatric problems. Antipsychotics are prescribed drugs, which lead the drug abuser to illegal methods of access. This behavior also demonstrates the association of OLZ with criminal involvement, commonly observed at forensic crime scenes. The acute toxicity and even death resulting from OLZ exposure have been highlighted in numerous studies. Therefore, developing analytical techniques to detect OLZ is essential for forensic toxicology. This study aimed to develop a specific and reliable LC-MS/MS method for OLZ detection and quantification in hair samples. The method was validated in terms of selectivity, linearity, limit of detection (LOD), limit of quantification (LOQ), trueness, precision, and uncertainty. The range of linearity was between 0.1-100 ng/mg, with LOD and LOQ values established at 0.036 ng/mg and 0.1 ng/mg, respectively. All validation results are within acceptable parameters. The validated method has been applied to authentic hair samples. The variation of OLZ concentrations in 12 hair segments (2 from Case 1 and 10 from Case 2) from two drug-positive patients, ranging from 0.131 to 0.460 ng/mg, is presented in this study. Although several studies have been conducted to determine OLZ in hair samples using segmental analysis via hair solubilization, this study is the first to determine OLZ in hair samples after "digestion" with comparative parameters prior to chromatographic analysis.