Hypnotic-Sedative Screen by High Performance Liquid Chromatography

In this procedure some of the most commonly abused sedatives and hypnotics can be identified and quantitated using 100 ul of serum. Ethosuximide, primidone, methyprylon, phenobarbital, butabarbital, butalbital, glutethimide, mephobarbital, phenytoin, carbamazepine, secobarbital, phensuximide, pentobarbital, amobarbital, and methaqualone are extracted into a chloroform-ethanol solvent containing either 5-(p-methylphenyl)-5-phenyl-hydantoin or hexobarbital as an internal standard, evaporated to dryness, reconstituted with mobile phase and injected into a high performance liquid chromatograph in conjunction with a radial compression separation system. Peak heights are measured at 195 nm and 254 nm and sensitivity for all drugs is one μg/ml. Day to day precision obtained CV's ranging from 4.5 to 10.4%.