@article{ref1,
title="Drug- and alcohol-related deaths at a pediatric institution in the United Kingdom",
journal="American journal of forensic medicine and pathology",
year="2012",
author="Morley, Stephen R. and Becker, Julia and Al-Adnani, Mudher and Cohen, Marta Cecilia",
volume="33",
number="4",
pages="390-394",
abstract="AIM: The study aimed to identify the incidence, clinical presentation, and demographic features of drug- and alcohol-related deaths diagnosed at a pediatric pathology department between 2004 and 2010. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Databases of the histopathology and toxicology departments were searched. Three groups were defined as follows: (1) cause of death is toxicologically related; (2) drugs present are consistent with therapeutic range use; and (3) a drug was detected, but the contribution of this drug to the mechanism of death was not clear. RESULTS: Fifty-five cases (36 males, 19 females; mean, 4.8 years; range, 2 hours to 17 years) were identified. This corresponded to 3.3% (55/1669) of all postmortems. Ten cases were group 1, 42 cases were group 2, and 3 cases were group 3. The results in group 1 were methadone (n = 2); methadone, alcohol, and dothiepin (n = 1); diazepam (n = 1); dothiepin (n = 1); carbon monoxide (n = 2); tramadol (n = 1); codeine and paracetamol (n = 1); and dihydrocodeine, citalopram, amitriptyline, and paracetamol (n = 1). The types of death were considered accidental (n = 2), suicide (n = 2), and undetermined (n = 6). CONCLUSIONS: The presence of a toxin in lethal concentration was found in 10 (0.6%) of 1669 of any kind of postmortem examinations. This increased to 2.2% when the analysis was restricted to &quot;sudden deaths.&quot; These results demonstrate the need to conduct toxicological screening in all postmortems of this sort.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0195-7910",
doi="10.1097/PAF.0b013e318252cfb1",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/PAF.0b013e318252cfb1"
}