SOFT 2004 Meeting Abstracts - Society of Forensic Toxicologists

B7
DETECTION OF COMMONLY ABUSED DRUGS IN URINE OF SEXUAL ASSAULT
COMPLAINANTS
Matthew Juhascik 1 *, R.E. Gaensslen\ Christine M. Moore 2 , Paul J. Goldstein', Alice Lindner 4 , Pam
Greene 4 , Diana Faugn0 5 , Linda Ledral, Barbara Haner 7 , Adam Negrusz 1 : lDepartment of
Biopharmaceutical Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, 2United States Drug Testing
Laboratories, Inc., Des Plaines, IL, 'Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University ofIlIinois at Chicago,
Chicago, IL, 4Scott & White Memorial Hospital, Temple, TX 5Palomar Pomerado Medical Center,
Escondido, CA, 6SARC, Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis, MN, 7Providence Everett Medical
Center, Everett, W A.
There are approximately 100,000 reported cases of sexual assault in the U.S. every year. It is estimated
(Bureau of Justice Statistics) that there are more than 300,000 sexual assaults every year, three times the
number actually reported. Recently, the use of "date-rape" drugs to incapacitate someone has received
considerable coverage in the media. However, before toxicologists can examine what "date-rape" drugs
are present in a sexual assault complainant, it is important to know what drugs of abuse are also commonly
found. This project is designed to estimate which drugs of abuse are found in sexual assault complainants
through a random sample from four reasonably representative US jurisdictions. Sites include locations in
Washington, Texas, California, and Minnesota.
Sexual assault complainants are asked when presenting to the hospital ifthey would like to take part in this
study. Ifthey agree, consent forms are filled out and the complainant provides a urine sample following a
protocol approved by the UIC IRB. The sample is then sent to our laboratory for proper handling and
storage. At the end of the subject recruitment phase ofthe study, 31 sexual assault complainants had been
recruited at the Texas location, 56 from the California site, 15 from Washington, and 43 in Minnesota, for a
total of 145. The racial distribution ofthe sample is: 70.3% White, 8.3% Black, 13.1% Latino, and 8.3%
other/unknown. The ages ofthe complainants range from 18 to 56 with the highest number in the 21-25
age cohort.
Urine samples collected from all of the complainants are screened by immunoassay for the following drugs
ofabuse (values in parentheses are corresponding cut-off values): ethanol (40 mg/dL), amphetamines (250
ng/mL), opiates (50 ng/mL), PCP (10 ng/mL), cannabinoids (10 ng/mL), methadone (100 ng/mL),
barbiturates (100 ng/mL), and benzodiazepines (100 ng/mL). Because drug-facilitated sexual assault
victims may have only been given a single dose, low cut-off values for the EMIT screen were used to
achieve maximum sensitivity. All presumptive positive samples are confirmed by GC-MS following
extraction and derivatization if appropriate. To date, 125 specimens have been analyzed. Confirmed
positives include 13.6% for cocaine, 28% for marijuana, 2.4% for benzodiazepines, 6.4% for opiates, and
7.2% for amphetamines. These preliminary results suggest that complainants of sexual assault have more
drugs in their system than the normal population.
In order to determine if sexual assault complainants are more or less likely to abuse drugs, our results will
be compared to general population drug use data from NIDA' s Monitoring the Future and the National
Household Survey on Drug Abuse conducted by SAMHSA. The confirmed positives will also be
examined by race, age, and geographic location to determine ifany trends are apparent.
Key Words: Sexual assault, drugs ofabuse, GC-MS.
Page 206