08-16-2017, 09:59 PM
dissertation topics in forensic toxicology
Depression is the most common psychiatric disorder in this century. Several chemical unrelated agents have been developed and introduced in the past decade to supplement the earlier antideressants (TCA s). These include inhibitors of the reuptake of serotonin or noradrenaline or both, as well as drugs with distinct neurochemical profiles.All antidepressants, that are currently available for clinical use, are effective for the treatement of depression, but vary significantly in terms of tolerability and side effects at therapeutic doses as well as life-threatening toxicity following overdose.Selective serotonin and serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, although much safer than TCA s and MAO s, are limited by tree factors: side effects, response failure in patients with severe depression (which mostly leads to suicide) and drug-drug interactions.
A lot of the drug-drug interactions are due to the fact that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (which are substrates for or inhibitors of Cyp-enzymes) are often administered in combination with other neuropsychiatric drugs, such as benzodiazepines, antipsychotics, anticonvulsants and even other antidepressants, which are substrates for one or more Cyp-enzymes.That s why determination of antidepressants and their metabolites in biological fluids could be interesting in (forensic) toxicological analysis.The goal of this research is to achieve a selective and sensitive analytical method for the newer types of antidepressants in plasma and urine with GC/MS.
Forensic Medicine and Science has a long-standing history of offering research degrees to students from the UK and overseas, with many graduates going on to become established experts and leaders in their specialties. A list of research thesis titles from the past 50 years features many of the prominent topics in the development of the field.
The major research interests in forensic toxicology have developed primarily from the casework. Changing social trends identified through forensic toxicology casework often drive the creation of new research projects.
The forensic toxicology laboratories are equipped with state-of-the-art analytical instrumentation providing both research students and collaborators with the opportunity to undertake essential, high quality research. The toxicology service constantly needs to develop advanced analytical methods, often based on innovative combinations of modern instrumentation and alternative biological matrices. These new methodologies provide important tools for the interpretation of toxicology results.
Research is carried out within broad subject areas such as:
Instrumentation and Methodology
Alcohol and Drugs in the Community
Drug Facilitated Sexual Assaults
Drugs and Driving
Emerging Drugs
Recent projects have included drug abuse in pregnancy, opioid abuse in the Glasgow area, the stability of drugs and alcohol, blood spot analysis; the development of broad drug screening methods utilizing QTOF LC-MS; investigating alternative matrices and biomarkers, and interpretation of drug concentrations in post-mortem samples.