NCJ Number
201506
Journal
Addiction Volume: 98 Issue: 7 Dated: July 2003 Pages: 987-994
Date Published
July 2003
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This document discusses the dose-effect relationship between self-reported drug intake and the concentration of drugs and/or their metabolites in hair.
Abstract
A cohort study was conducted among young drug users (YDU) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands in July 2000. Subjects were 95 YDU, aged 18 to 30, that used cocaine, heroin, methadone, and/or amphetamines at least 3 days a week. They were asked to report their average drug intake over a 2 month period. A hair sample was taken and analyzed for cocaine, benzoylecgonine, morphine, 6-monoacetylmorphine, and methadone. Weighted least-squares regression analysis was used to model hair-test results as a function of reported drug use. Of the 95 YDU, one-third were women, mean age was almost 26, 30 percent had black hair, 33 percent blond hair, and 37 percent brown hair. Cocaine use was reported by 92 percent, heroin by 75 percent, and methadone by 64 percent of participants. All hair samples contained one or more drugs. The correlation coefficients between reported drug doses and drug concentrations in hair ranged between 0.45 and 0.59. Analysis showed that, for one or more types of drug, black-haired people, women, and non-Western European people had relatively high drug concentrations in hair. The corresponding multivariate correlation coefficients ranged between 0.63 and 0.87. This study shows that drug levels in scalp hair appear to reflect closely the amount of drugs reportedly consumed, making hair analysis a useful source of data in epidemiological studies when a personal report is unavailable. Predicting factors such as gender and hair color must be taken into consideration in the statistical models. 1 figure, 2 tables, 22 references