USING HAIR ANALYSIS TO MONITOR ABSTINENCE IN PATIENTS ON A METHADONE TREATMENT PROGRAMME*

ABSTRACT: Hair analysis for drugs of abuse has been proposed as an alternative to urine drug testing because it may be considered less invasive and more difficult to cheat on than urine testing. Information about recent exposure to a drug (2–3 days) acquired by urine analysis can be complemented by hair testing, which can provide a retrospective view of drug intake over several weeks or months depending on the length of the hair sample. These advantages of hair analysis are utilised for checking on drug use by addicted patients being rehabilitated. The aim of this study was to ap-ply the determination of major opiates and amphetamines in hair to the monitoring of abstinence of methadone programme patients who were mainly addicted to “Pol-ish heroin”. GC/MS-ITD was used for opiates and LC/MS-APCI for amphetamines. Application of hair analysis to methadone program monitoring revealed 40 % of pa-tients who did not fulfil abstinence requirements and abused illicit drugs, most fre-quently amphetamine and ephedrine