Excretion of methadone in sweat of pregnant women throughout gestation after controlled methadone administration

Sweat patches (n = 350) were collected throughout gestation from 29 opioid-dependent pregnant women participating in an outpatient methadone-assisted therapy program. Volunteers provided informed consent to participate in institutional review board-approved protocols. Methadone was eluted from sweat patches with sodium acetate buffer, followed by solid-phase extraction and quantification by gas chromatography mass spectrometry (limit of quantification 10 ng/patch). Methadone was present in all weekly patches (n = 311) in concentrations ranging from 10.2 to 12,129.7 nanograms per patch and in 92.3% of short-term patches (n = 39, worn for 12 or 24 hours) in concentrations up to 3303.9 nanograms per patch. Correlation between patch concentrations and total amount of drug administered (r = 0.224), and concentrations and duration of patch wear (r = 0.129) were both weak. Although there were large intra-and intersubject variations in sweat drug concentrations, sweat testing was an effective alternative technique to qualitatively monitor illicit drug use and simultaneously document methadone medication-assisted treatment.