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Taylor and Francis Group, Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences, 1(48), p. 37-41

DOI: 10.1080/00450618.2015.1025839

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Striking increases in postmortem compared to antemortem drug concentrations in a suicidal overdose: A case report

This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Toxicology testing revealed dramatic increases in whole-blood concentrations of verapamil and diphenhydramine in the short time between hospital admission and death (53 min) in a subject (with a history of overdosing) found unresponsive. While some degree of post-mortem redistribution (PMR) would be expected for the drugs found in this case, PMR cannot explain the considerable increases observed. It is recommended that in potential overdose cases without a clear manner of death but for which ante-mortem and post-mortem specimens (including gastric content) are available, all should be analysed and considered in order to make a more definitive conclusion regarding that death.