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Depression is the largest cause of disability worldwide, affecting 350 million people.Notwithstanding that clinical trials demonstrate antidepressants efficacy, the efficient response can vary individually concerning therapeutic dosage. Although important, plasma levels monitoring remains an analytical challenge whereas clean-up and preconcentration represent critical steps. Therefore, this study aims to develop, optimize and validate a method for fluoxetine determination in human plasma, employing a laboratory-made device consisting of a PDMS stir bar sorptive for extraction, coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence detection (SBSE-HPLC-FD). Optimization involved sorption-desorption steps. For sorption, temperature and time were assessed by factorial and central composite design approaches, taking into account the desirability and the response surface results, with stirring speed also examined. For desorption kinetics and ultrasonic and magnetic stirring mode were evaluated. The proposed method after validation was robust, linear (25.00-1000.00 ng mL −1 , R 2 > 0.98) and presented good intra-(RSD 4.18%) andinter-day-assay (RSD 11.60%) precision and accuracy (recovery 109.60%), allowing reliable quantitation without interference. The method was successfully applied to real samples. SBSE-HPLC-FD could represent a feasible alternative with good cost-benefit for low-volume samples and therapeutic drug monitoring, as well as contributing to correlation studies between plasma fluoxetine levels and clinical response, which is still little studied.

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The cover image is based on the Research Article Optimization and validation of an SBSE‐HPLC—FD method using laboratory—made stir bars for fluoxetine determination in human plasma, by Letícia Aparecida Marques et al., https://doi.org/10.1002/bmc.4398.