Date of Award
Spring 5-20-2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department/Program
Forensic Science
Language
English
First Advisor or Mentor
Marta Concheiro-Guisan
Second Reader
Shu-Yuan Cheng
Third Advisor
Daniel Torres Rangel
Abstract
Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) provides information about a population’s exposure to certain chemical agents, such as drugs of abuse and medicines, by the analysis of human biomarkers, also known as excretion products, in wastewater samples. Although this is a growing field worldwide, mainly in Europe, Oceania, and Asia, limited data from the US are currently available. We developed and validated an analytical method to quantitatively and qualitatively determine the presence of commonly prescribed drugs to treat anxiety (alprazolam, buspirone, clonazepam, lorazepam, and propranolol) and depression (bupropion, citalopram, clomipramine, duloxetine, fluoxetine, imipramine, paroxetine, sertraline, and venlafaxine) in wastewater using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MSMS). We applied this method in the analysis of 48 authentic wastewater samples, collected from six different wastewater plants in New York City through one year. Ion suppression (n=10) was detected for all the analytes in the method as the matrix effects ranged from -30.6 to -99.6%. All the drugs were detected in at least one location with the exceptions of lorazepam and duloxetine, which were not detected in any plant. The antidepressant venlafaxine was the most commonly detected drug (n=31), with concentrations from 46.5 to 298.5 ng/L. Hunts Point wastewater plant had 10 out of 14 analytes present in the wastewater samples examined compared to the other 5 sites which had 8 analytes or less present in the wastewater samples. The amount of samples positive for antidepressants increased before every holiday except New Year’s Day (Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day) whereas the amount of samples positive for anxiolytic drugs relatively remained the same or changed by one value throughout the year. We developed and validated a sensitive and specific method for the detection of 14 anxiolytic and antidepressant drugs in wastewater. Wastewater analysis is a valuable tool which can be used to observe drug usage in large and small populations.
Recommended Citation
Gayle, Jasmine J., "Determination of Anxiolytic and Antidepressant Medicines in New York City Wastewater Samples" (2019). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/jj_etds/107
Included in
Chemicals and Drugs Commons, Environmental Sciences Commons, Epidemiology Commons, Medicinal-Pharmaceutical Chemistry Commons