TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2015//
TI  - Methadone-related deaths. A ten year overview
JO  - Forensic science international
A1  - Vignali, Claudia
A1  - Stramesi, Cristiana
A1  - Morini, Luca
A1  - Pozzi, Fulvia
A1  - Groppi, Angelo
SP  - 172
EP  - 176
VL  - 257
IS  - 
N2  - Over the last 10 years we have registered in our district (about 500,000 inhabitants) 36 cases of fatal methadone poisoning, involving both patients on treatment and naive subjects: this is a significant increase of deaths due to methadone use, misuse or abuse compared with previous years. Twenty-four patients (66.7%) were on methadone maintenance programs for heroin detoxification, while 12 (33.3%) were taking the drug without a medical prescription. The average blood concentration of methadone in patients undergoing a maintenance program was 1.06mg/L (0.21-3.37mg/L), against 0.79mg/L (0.2-3.15mg/L) in those taking the non-prescribed drug. Since 111 heroin-related deaths were recorded in our district in the same period, the fact that there appear to be many methadone deaths (about a third of heroin-related deaths) cannot be overlooked. The aim of this work is to understand the possible reasons for such a large number of methadone-related deaths. On this subject, we have noticed that risks associated with methadone intake are often underestimated by clinicians prescribing the drug: sometimes methadone is prescribed without taking into account patient's tolerance to opiates, and a large number of subjects enrolled in methadone maintenance programs in Italy, have also been given take-home doses, thus increasing the risk of abuse and diversion.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0379-0738
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2015.08.017
ID  - ref1
ER  -