Fatal Intoxications in a Forensic Autopsy Material from Epirus, Greece, During the Period 1998‐2010

Abstract

In this retrospective study, we report the epidemiological characteristics of all poisoning deaths in Epirus, Greece, from 1998 to 2010; we present the toxicological findings and the statistical evaluation of the results. This is the first detailed scientific report on all the officially certified poisoning deaths concerning part of the Greek population. A total of 126 poisoning fatalities were recorded, 67 of them being mono-intoxications (53.2%). The cause of poisoning was as follows: drugs of abuse (60%); carbon monoxide (19.8%); pesticides (9.5%); corrosives (4.8%); pharmaceuticals (4.8%); and spider bite (0.8%). The most frequently detected poisonous substances were as follows: heroin (65 cases), ethanol (55), benzodiazepines (42), carbon monoxide (25), cocaine (17), cannabinoids (17) and pesticides (12). Increasing tendency in poisoning death rates was recorded, due to an increase in accidental poisoning deaths attributed mainly to drugs of abuse (total, accidental, and drugs-of-abuse poisoning death rates per 100,000 inhabitants per year were 1.87, 1.19, and 0.79, respectively, in the period 1998-2002 and 3.97, 3.41, and 2.55, respectively, in the period 2007-2010).

Avaliação das Apreensões de Benzodiazepínicos na Cidade de Recife – PE, Brasil

“…Pessoas idosas e crianças são os grupos mais afetados do processo de medicalização de experiências humanas normais 5,6 . O aumento do uso de benzodiazepínicos está associado com o risco no desenvolvimento de muitas doenças e acidentes como dependência química 1 , overdose 7 , intoxicações fatais 8,9 e acidentes de trânsito 10 . O uso indiscriminado de benzodiazepínicos resulta em altos custos em tratamentos de saúde, diminuição da produtividade, redução da qualidade de vida relativa a saúde e mortalidade.…”

Validated analytical methodology for the simultaneous determination of a wide range of pesticides in human blood using GC–MS/MS and LC–ESI/MS/MS and its application in two poisoning cases

“…Morbidity and mortality attributable to these substances vary from country to country, depending on many variables such as the level of socioeconomic development, accessibility to these chemicals, and the importance of the agricultural sector. Fatalities involving pesticides are a consequence of accidents, self-injury or more rarely homicides, and range from less than 1% of deaths from poisoning in EU countries [1,2] to up to 71% of all violent deaths in the Western Pacific and Southeast Asia [3][4][5]. In all these cases chemical analysis to investigate the poison involved is mandatory, and the forensic laboratory is facing a challenge because in most cases there is no information on what the substance involved was.…”

Self‐immolation Suicide in Greece: A Forensic Psychiatric Autopsy Study between 2011 and 2019

“…In Greece, although several methods of committing suicide have been extensively described, no previous reports on self‐immolation exist (24–26). The present study aims to (i) illustrate the investigative findings of self‐immolation completed suicides (autopsy cases) occurring in the Greek mainland—under the jurisdiction of the Departments of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Democritus University of Thrace, and Peloponnese over a period of 9 years (1 January 2011–31 December 2019)—in order to (i) identify the profile of suicide victims; (ii) determine the circumstances of the incidents; and (iii) discover suicidal motivations; as well as (iv) their association to socio‐cultural, pathological, or psychiatric factors and (v) describe a fatal case of suicide by self‐immolation that was partially filmed by a surveillance camera.…”