Determination of risperidone and enantiomers of 9-hydroxyrisperidone in plasma by LC-MS/MS

A robust and validated liquid–liquid extraction LC-MS/MS method was developed for population pharmacokinetic analysis and therapeutic drug monitoring of risperidone and the enantiomers of its major active metabolite (+)-and (−)9-hydroxyrisperidone in pediatric patients. The method was rapid, sensitive and used a low sample amount (200 μL), which is very desirable for the pediatric population. The assay was validated from 0.2 to 50 ng/mL in plasma for all analytes. LLOQ for all analytes was 0.2 ng/mL. The extracts were analyzed by normal phase LC-MS/MS. The sample run time was 8 min. Intra- and interday precision for all analytes was ≤6%; method accuracy was between 89 and 99%. Additional experiments were performed to analyze matrix effects and identify a proper internal standard for each analyte. The validated method was used to study risperidone and its enantiomer metabolites in plasma as part of a population pharmacokinetic study in pediatric patients with pervasive developmental disorder (PDD).