Simplified high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the determination of citalopram and desmethylcitalopram in serum without interference from commonly used psychotropic drugs and their metabolites

A simplified method for the determination of racemic citalopram and its main metabolite desmethylcitalopram in serum using HPLC was developed. The compounds were extracted with heptane-isoamyl alcohol (98:2) and subsequently transferred into phosphate buffer pH 2.5 for direct injection into the HPLC apparatus. The analytes were separated with an acetonitrile-phosphate buffer, pH 2.5-tetraethylamine mobile phase on a C-18 column and measured by UV detection at 240 nm. Within the typical range of serum concentrations (30-200 ng/ml) the inter-day variation was <6% for both compounds. Possible analytical interference from a number of commonly coadministered psychoactive drugs and their metabolites was studied by extracting sera from patients receiving these drugs. Interference was not a problem for the developed method.