Citation

Gericke OL. J. Am. Med. Assoc. 1945; 128(15): 1098-1099.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1945, American Medical Association)

DOI

10.1001/jama.1945.92860320004011b

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Death by taking an overdose of amphetamine sulfate is sufficiently rare to warrant reporting such an occurrence. Hertzog, Karlstrom and Bechtel,1 state that the only fatal case they were able to find reported in the literature was that of Smith2 in 1939, and they go on to present the case of a 1 year old child who accidentally consumed a minimum of four tablets, or 40 mg., of the drug with fatal outcome.The comprehensive review of the pharmacology of amphetamine sulfate by Ivy and Krasno3 cites the case of a student who died a few hours after taking a 10 mg. dose, and the cause of his death remained conjectural in spite of an autopsy.The present case with death following the deliberate consumption of an estimated 120 mg. of amphetamine sulfate points to the fact that the substance is a therapeutic aid with dangerous potentialities and that