Analysis of Intoxication Deaths: Causes and Manners of Death

Abstract

Drug poisoning related deaths are considered as deaths in which at least one drug or poison is detected in postmortem samples and attributed to death. Drug could be a causative agent and poisoning with that drug a contributory factor leading to death [1]. Type of drug used, health status, licit and illicit drug availability and geographic position are factors affecting the pattern of poisoning. Therefore, epidemiologic studies can help to define intoxication deaths and its pattern [2]. Various approaches and studies are available for estimating intoxication deaths. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimated that 264 million people (one out of twenty) aged 15-64 y had used one illicit drug in 2013. In this report it was indicated that 187/100 deaths were related to drug use [3]. According to the investigation of European Drug Markets Report in 2016, some countries that use protocols and practices of substitution treatment, face drug related deaths too [4]. Social Affairs Bureau damage of Ministry of Cooperative, Labour and Social Affairs of Iran reported changes in the pattern of drug abuse. There was a 28 % increase in the seizure of clandestine methamphetamine laboratories from 2005 to 2013 [5]. United Nations reported that Iran ranked fifth behind Mexico, United States, China and Thailand in methamphetamine seizure between 2010-2012 [6,7]. Drug related deaths were investigated by American and European researchers [8,9]. Iranian Legal Medicine Organization documented that 551, 627, 599 and 747 cases of drug poisoning related deaths were investigated during 2010-2013 [10]. There are informal reports that drug related deaths have surged in some provinces in Iran. Assessment and documenting drug related deaths is of crucial importance in every province in Iran. To accomplish this goal all assumed death poisoning cases in Qom province, Iran are subjected to forensic autopsy and forensic toxicology investigation to establish the

Deliberate Self-Poisoning: Real-Time Characterization of Suicidal Habits and Toxidromes in the Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System

“…Sources focusing on fatal intoxication are forensic autopsy records (integrating circumstantial, autoptic, and toxicological data), forensic toxicology databases (collecting post-mortem blood levels), and the Office for National Statistics. Forensic studies accurately report the causes and manner of death inferred from comprehensive post-mortem investigations but usually address small single-center samples [ 12 – 16 ] and search for few drugs [ 17 – 19 ]. Databases reporting toxicological results present data from multiple centers, but not always allow to infer the intention behind the intoxication (i.e., whether homicidal, accidental, or suicidal) [ 20 ], as post-mortem blood levels are not representative of ante-mortem levels or of doses taken [ 20 – 22 ].…”