Monitoring antipsychotic drugs in fingerprints and dried blood spots
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A novel technique of monitoring antipsychotic drugs in fingerprints and dried blood spots.
IRAS ID
240243
Contact name
Melanie Bailey
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Psychosis is considered as a mental health problem where the person perceives or interprets reality in a very different way than other people. The most common signs and symptoms of psychosis are hallucinations, delusions and disorganised thinking and speech which affect people in many ways: it can be a one-time experience, short episodes throughout life or on a daily basis. In some severe cases of psychotic, patients are required hospital admission to reduce the risk to themselves and others and for monitoring of their compliance. Admission to hospital is the most expensive part of a care pathway and there has been continues attempt by clinicians to reduce the hospital admission for these group of patients. Monitoring patients’ compliance with medication has remained as the most difficult challenge for clinicians.
The aim of the research is to evaluate the potential use of fingerprints and dried blood spot to monitor antipsychotic drug levels for psychotic disorders. Fingerprints can offer many advantages over other collection media such as blood and urine because of the non-invasive nature of the sampling method and turnaround time of results. In a different manner, dried blood spots also has its advantages, it is easy to perform, minimally invasive, easy to storage and transport (room temperature) and a reduced infection risk of various pathogens. The principal objective is whether it is possible to carry out measurements of antipsychotic drugs and their metabolites in fingerprints and dried blood spots using ambient mass spectrometry methods.
Analysis will be performed on fingerprint samples collected from patients registered with Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. The study is aimed at individuals (female and male, 18 – 85 years old) that are taking antipsychotic treatment for psychotic disorders.REC name
North East - York Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/NE/0071
Date of REC Opinion
9 Feb 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion