British scientists at the University of Surrey have developed a simple test that shows traces of antipsychotic drugs in a patient’s body. A sweat sample taken from the fingertips is sufficient for analysis. To work published In the scientific journal Frontiers in Chemistry.
Antipsychotic drugs or neuroleptics are used to treat serious mental disorders such as hallucinations, intense fear, psychosis, schizophrenia, and others. Many of these drugs have serious side effects, so patients taking them need to have frequent blood tests to be able to prescribe the dose accurately.
Researchers have found an easier way to test antipsychotics that doesn’t require injections or other unpleasant procedures. To test the technology, the researchers recruited 60 people who were taking various antipsychotic drugs and formed a control group of 30 drug-free volunteers.
Participants in the experiment pressed their fingertips on porous paper for 30 seconds, after which the samples were examined using chromatography and mass spectrometry. The test accurately detected the presence of antipsychotic drugs in the body of patients who took them, and also made it possible to determine the concentration of certain active substances.
The researchers noted that the method could be adapted to detect other types of drugs in the blood.
Formerly doctors suggested New treatment for a rare type of schizophrenia.