Determination of blood concentration levels of psychotropic medications in Rwandan patients

Objectives: In Rwanda, no therapeutic monitoring of psychotropic drugs is done. This results in difficult treatment optimisation and exposition to a high risk of toxicity and drug ineffectiveness for patients under treatment. This study aimed to determine blood concentration levels of psychotropic drugs in Rwandan patients and identify problems associated with the lack of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) of these drugs.Methods: The analysis was performed on 1 ml of serum sample using prazepam as internal standard. Regarding the step of sample preparation, we used a liquid–liquid extraction with a mixture of organic solvents: diethyl ether/dichloromethane/hexane/n-amyl alcohol (50/30/20/0.5:V/V). A Waters Alliance 2695 was used for analysis. The chromatography was run on a Symmetry C8 column and as mobile phase acetonitrile and phosphate buffer (pH 3.8) were used.Results: Concerning the results, serum samples from 128 patients were analysed. Twenty-one different psychotropic drugs belonging to various pha...