Determination of Fluvoxamine and Paroxetine in Human Serum with High-Performance Liquid Chromatography and Ultraviolet Detection

A facile on-off fluorescence approach for fluvoxamine determination in pharmaceutical tablets; application to content uniformity testing

A green-complied spectrofluorimetric approach for quantification of the antidepressant, fluvoxamine, has been established. The method that has been suggested relies on the development of an association complex between fluvoxamine and erythrosine B in an acetate buffer solution. After being excited at 530 nm, the quenching in erythrosine B's native fluorescence caused by complex formation with fluvoxamine was detected at a wavelength of 552 nm. The values of fluorescence quenching at the most optimal reaction conditions were rectilinear at the concentration range of 0.2-2.0 μg mL-1, with a good correlation coefficient (r = 0.9998). The detection limit for the method was 0.03 μg mL-1 while the quantitation limit was 0.09 μg mL-1. The suggested approach has been validated according to the ICH. The established approach was effectively used to determine the drug under study in its dosage form with an average percent recovery of 98.92 ± 0.87 (n = 5), with no effect caused by the existing excipients. The proposed approach was also successfully used for the content uniformity test.

Determination of the antidepressant paroxetine and its three main metabolites in human plasma by liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method has been developed for the determination in human plasma of the specific serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant paroxetine and its three main metabolites (M1, M2, M3). Fluorescence detection was used, exciting at lambda = 294 nm and monitoring emission at lambda = 330 nm for paroxetine (lambda(exc) = 280 nm, lambda(em) = 330 nm for M1 and M2; lambda(exc) = 268 nm, lambda(em) = 290 nm for M3). Separation was obtained on a reversed-phase C18 column using a mobile phase composed of 66.7% aqueous phosphate at pH 2.5 and 33.3% acetonitrile. Imipramine (lambda(exc) = 252 nm, lambda(em) = 390 nm) was used as the internal standard. A careful pre-treatment of plasma samples was developed, using solid-phase extraction with C8 cartridges (50 mg, 1 mL). The calibration curves were linear over a working range of 2.5-100 ng mL(-1) for paroxetine and of 5-100 ng mL(-1) for all metabolites. The limit of detection (LOD) was 1.2 ng mL(-1) for PRX and 2.0 ng mL(-1) for the metabolites. The method was applied with success to plasma samples from depressed patients undergoing treatment with paroxetine. Hence, the method seems to be suitable for the therapeutic drug monitoring of paroxetine and its main metabolites in depressed patients' plasma.

Electroanalytical study of fluvoxamine

Fluvoxamine (FVX) can be reduced at a mercury-drop electrode, with a maximum peak current intensity being obtained at a potential of -0.7 V vs. Ag/AgCl, in an aqueous electrolyte solution of pH 2. The compound was determined in a pharmaceutical product and in spiked human serum by square-wave adsorptive-stripping voltammetry (SWAdSV) after accumulation at the electrode surface, under batch conditions. Because the presence of dissolved oxygen did not interfere significantly with the analysis, it was also possible to determine FVX in the pharmaceutical product by use of a flow-injection analysis (FIA) system with SWAdSV detection. The methods developed were validated and successfully applied to the quantification of FVX in a pharmaceutical product. Recoveries between 76 and 89% were obtained in serum analysis. The FIA-SWAdSV method enabled analysis of up to 120 samples per hour at reduced cost, implying the possibility of competing with the chromatographic methods usually used for this analysis.

Development of a capillary zone electrophoretic method to determine six antidepressants in their pharmaceutical preparations. Experimental design for evaluating the ruggedness of method

A capillary zone electrophoresis method is proposed for the separation of six of the antidepressants most used for the treatment of mental illness (clomipramine, paroxetine, fluoxetine, citalopram, fluvoxamine, and trazodone). Optimum conditions for their separation were investigated. A background electrolyte solution consisting of 50 mM phosphate buffer adjusted to pH 2.0, hydrodynamic injection, and 25 kV as separation voltage were used. Relative standard deviations (RSD) were <0.38% and <2.93% for migration time and corrected peak area (n = 24), respectively. Detection limits obtained for the six antidepressants ranged from 0.03 to 0.11 mg L(-1). Stability of the solutions, linear concentration range, accuracy, and precision were examined during validation of the method. A ruggedness test of this method was performed using the fractional factorial model of Plackett-Burman, requiring in our case design of a matrix of 15 experiments, in which the influence of seven factors at three different levels was tested on different electrophoretic results: efficiency; resolution; and corrected peak area. Statistical evaluation of electrophoretic results was achieved by Youden and Steiner's method. The described method is rapid, sensitive, and rugged and it was tested for the pharmaceutical formulation analysis, giving recoveries between 95.6 and 99.1% with respect to the nominal content.

Simple method of paroxetine determination using a single channel FIA with no in-line reaction process

A flow-injection analysis (FIA) of paroxetine hydrochloride (PRX), a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) currently used as an antidepressant drug, is described. A 0.1 mol dm(-3) acetate buffer at pH 3.07 was found to be thebest solvent. The analyte was detected at 293 nm. The calibration equation was linear over the range of 1.07 x 10(-6) to 5.35 x 10(-6) mol dm(-3). The limit of detection (LOD) and the limit of quantitation (LOQ) were 3.2 x 10(-7) and 9.5 x 10(-7) mol dm(-3), respectively. The proposed method was applied to the determination of PRX in pharmaceutical preparations. The results were compared with those obtained by a conventional batchwise UV-spectrophotometry.

Serum levels and cardiovascular effects of tricyclic antidepressants and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in depressed patients

Tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are used to treat depression. Whereas cardiovascular effects have occasionally been reported during controlled studies with SSRIs, TCA treatment poses a well-known problem in this respect. To investigate the putative correlation between antidepressant dose or serum levels and adverse effects, the authors devised a naturalistic study to evaluate the tricyclic antidepressants' and SSRIs' effect on the cardiovascular system. The authors also compared antidepressant serum levels to adverse effects. Inpatients treated with TCAs or SSRIs were included; an electrocardiogram (ECG) and a Schellong test were carried out on the day patients entered the hospital and during steady-state treatment with antidepressant drugs when blood was drawn for therapeutic drug monitoring. The patient population consisted of 114 acutely depressed patients; 81 patients were treated with TCAs and 33 with SSRIs. The TCAs comprised amitriptyline (n = 43), clomipramine (n = 11), doxepin (n = 19) and imipramine (n = 8); the SSRIs comprised fluvoxamine (n = 14) and paroxetine (n = 19). In TCA-treated patients, the authors observed the same type of abnormalities in conduction and orthostatic hypotension as had been observed earlier. The authors also observed cases of first-degree atrioventricular block, prolonged QTc interval, and orthostatic hypotension in SSRI-treated patients. Thus SSRIs also appear to affect the cardiovascular system, which might pose a problem for patients with preexisting conduction disease. The authors observed a strong correlation between the decrease in systolic pressure and antidepressant serum concentration (except for clomipramine and paroxetine), suggesting that antidepressant serum level is a better correlate than dose.

Validated chiral high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the determination of trans-(-)-paroxetine and its enantiomer in bulk and pharmaceutical formulations

A stereospecific high-performance liquid chromatography method for the determination of trans-(-)-paroxetine and its enantiomer in bulk raw material and pharmaceutical formulations was developed and validated. The enantiomeric separation was achieved, without any derivatization, on a carbamate derivative-based column (Chiralpak AD). The effect of the organic modifiers, 2-propanol and ethanol, in the mobile phases was optimised to obtain enantiomeric separation. Limits of detection and quantitation of 2 and 6 ng, respectively, were obtained for both of the enantiomers. The linearity was established in the range of 5-41 microg for trans-(-)-paroxetine and in the range of 10-160 ng for trans-(+)-paroxetine. The accuracy of the method was 102.3% (mean value) for trans-(-)-paroxetine and 99.9% (mean value) for trans-(+)-paroxetine. For the precision (repeatability), a relative standard deviation value of 1.5% (mean value) for trans-(-)-paroxetine and of 2.1% (mean value) for trans-(+)-paroxetine was found. The method is capable of determining a minimum limit of 0.2% of trans-(+)-isomer in commercial samples.