Testing hair for pharmaceuticals

More than hundred pharmaceuticals, drugs of abuse or doping agents have been reported to be detectable in human hair. This article reviews the analysis of 90 drugs and drug metabolites by chromatographic procedures, including the pretreatment steps, the extraction methods, the reported limits of detection and the measured concentrations in real human hair samples. Some progress is observed in the detection of low dose drugs, like fentanyl or flunitrazepam. The general tendency in the last years, to highly sophisticated techniques (GC–MS–NCI, HPLC–MS, GC–MS–MS) illustrates well this constant fight for sensitivity. Some new findings, based on the recent experience of the authors, are also added.