Old benzodiazepine, new NPS−Phenazepam: A method development study
in: The Dangers of Psychoactive Substances, Denise J. Burton, Editor, NOVA Science Publishers Inc. , New York, pp.59-79, 2023
- Publication Type: Book Chapter / Chapter Research Book
- Publication Date: 2023
- Publisher: NOVA Science Publishers Inc.
- City: New York
- Page Numbers: pp.59-79
- Editors: Denise J. Burton, Editor
- Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa Affiliated: Yes
Abstract
Designer
benzodiazepines are a novel type of new psychoactive substance (NPS), often
known as NPS-benzodiazepines. They are especially harmful, owing to inadequate
toxicity information and a tendency to consider them as therapeutic drugs,
which may result in misdiagnosis, treatment with consequent severe adverse
effects and occasionally death. Phenazepam is a frequently abused, long-acting
benzodiazepine, which has recently been categorized as an NPS-benzodiazepine.
Phenazepam has been released into the recreational drug market from time to
time for many years, but its reappearance as a NPS-benzodiazepine has demanded
a cost-effective, easy and reliable analytical method for accurate
identification and quantification of this substance for forensic and clinical
purposes. This paper presents, a validated method specific to phenazepam using
reverse-phase-high-performance-liquid chromatography coupled to ultraviolet - visible
spectrophotometric detection. The proposed method analysed phenazepam within 2
minutes, accomplishing an overall 102.63 ± 0.06 % accuracy, 0.220 % intraday
and 0.008 % inter-day precision. The limit of detection and limit of
quantitation values were determined as 0.158 and 0.526 µg/mL, respectively. The
validated method was also successfully applied to a spiked hair sample. The
validation performance of the developed method was satisfactory considering international
council on harmonisation guidelines.