Am J Psychiatry 1982; 139:1596-1598
Copyright © 1982 by American Psychiatric Association
Elimination characteristics of disulfiram over time in five alcoholic volunteers: a preliminary study
JC Jensen, MD Faiman and A Hurwitz
The authors studied the elimination of disulfiram and its metabolites for
24 hours after disulfiram administration in five healthy male alcoholic
volunteers. Using high-performance liquid chromatography, they found that a
single 500-mg dose resulted in a gradual increase in plasma disulfiram and
its metabolites, with peak levels generally occurring 8 hours after dosing.
There was considerable interpatient variability (e.g., in one volunteer no
disulfiram was detected during the entire 24-hour sampling period). The
authors also found that breath carbon disulfide was 9.1% of the dose of
disulfiram administered, which is less than that expected theoretically.
