Sertraline in paired blood plasma and breast-milk samples from nursing mothers

Abstract

Paired blood and breast-milk samples were collected from 10 nursing mothers receiving sertraline. Samples were collected at steady state when the patients had been taking stable doses of 50-150 mg/day over several weeks. Sertraline concentrations in both fluids were determined using a specific, validated HPLC method. Plasma and milk concentrations showed a wide inter-individual variability for the same dose. Mean plasma concentrations were linearly related to dose, but this was not the case for breast-milk concentrations. An overall milk to plasma ratio of 1.76 ± 1.72 was recorded. The average dose to the infants ranged from 1.1 to 31.1 μg/kg, which is less than 2 per cent of the maternal do..