Finger Sweat Test To Identify Antipsychotic Medications In Patients

Antipsychotic medications help incredibly helpless people. Many patients find it challenging to stay on their treatment plan, yet skipping medication appointments increases the risk of negative health outcomes. Blood tests are frequently performed to calibrate a patient’s dosage and ensure that they are taking the proper dose because these medications are also quite potent and have substantial side effects.

Blood testing, however, can be intrusive and uncomfortable. Now that typical antipsychotic drug levels can be checked in a patient’s sweat using their fingerprints, there is a speedier, more pleasant, and more practical alternative to blood draws for patient monitoring.

“Our test offers patients a quick and dignified way of showing commitment to antipsychotic treatment,” said Katherine Longman of the University of Surrey, first author of the study in Frontiers in Chemistry. “This non-invasive approach can also be adapted to fit other therapeutic regimes.”

A test is available right now

It was already known by scientists that some medications could be identified in sweat using a fingertip, without the need for specialized staff and with simpler storage and transportation. Unlike blood, finger sweat samples can be transported at room temperature.

They enlisted 30 untreated controls and 60 patients taking clozapine, quetiapine, or olanzapine to examine whether antipsychotic medicines might also be found in sweat. In order to evaluate the relationship between finger sweat indicators and blood indicators, 11 clozapine-using individuals volunteered to provide blood samples. The amount and most recent dose taken by the patient were both requested.

In order to get a better understanding of the eccrine sweat that emanates from fingertips, the researchers took samples both before and after washing their hands. For thirty seconds, patients applied their fingertips to porous paper. Following that, these samples were gathered and put through a liquid chromatography mass spectrometry analysis.

Six non-users were also requested to handle whole and crushed pills and then provide fingerprints by the researchers, led by corresponding author Prof. Melanie Bailey of the University of Surrey. By having test subjects touch the medicine, this control investigated whether the test could be tainted. The scientists were able to verify the accuracy of the approach and make a distinction between the medications’ presence on patients’ palms and in their sweat.

Medication fingerprinting

Every patient taking antipsychotic medications had their antipsychotic drug use reliably recognized by the test. It worked best for clozapine because levels of clozapine metabolites in finger sweat coincided with levels discovered in blood, according to a pilot study of a subgroup of patients. The test may someday be able to measure the levels of clozapine in a patient’s perspiration rather than only identify them, according to the research team.

Even though there were just a few patients in this small group, the test reliably picked up quetiapine. Although the olanzapine signal was not as strong, every patient who took the medication tested positive on at least one of the fingerprints that were taken prior to hand washing. They also took lesser doses than those receiving the other medications.

The effectiveness of the tests on fingerprints collected from unclean hands revealed this wasn’t necessary, even though the test as employed in the study included samples taken after washing hands, adding time and facilities needed for the test. It would be significantly quicker and simpler for laypeople to do the tests if this step were eliminated.

“We are currently exploring methods to quantify the level of drug in a fingerprint and the optimum sampling time,” added Bailey. “We are also very interested to see whether fingerprints can be used to diagnose disease—for example, from the metabolites that are deposited in a fingerprint sample.”