TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2020//
TI  - Femoral blood concentrations of the designer benzodiazepine etizolam in post-mortem cases
JO  - Medicine, science, and the law
A1  - Hikin, Laura J.
A1  - Smith, Paul R.
A1  - Maskell, Peter D.
A1  - Kurimbokus, Hassan
A1  - Ashong, Emily
A1  - Couchman, Lewis
A1  - Morley, Stephen R.
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - Etizolam is a thienodiazepine that although licensed for clinical usage in Japan, India and South Korea is commonly abused and detected in post-mortem cases around the world. To date, there are limited data in the literature to allow for the interpretation of blood concentrations of etizolam in post-mortem cases. A liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry method was used to quantitate etizolam concentrations in 28 post-mortem cases where etizolam was detected. The median concentration of etizolam in femoral blood was 8.5 ng/mL (range 1.0-172.0 ng/mL; n = 24); in antemortem plasma, the etizolam concentration range was 4-44 ng/mL (n = 4). The mean age of the individuals abusing etizolam was 38.5 ± 8.4 years (median 39 years), with the majority being male (86%). In all of the cases, multiple drugs were detected, with the most common being pregabalin (61%) followed by morphine/heroin (54%), diazepam (54%) and benzoylecgonine (21%), illustrating the increasing problem of poly-substance use in drug abusers. The cause of death in the cases in which etizolam was detected was multi-drug toxicity in 87.5% of the cases, with 12.5% unrelated to drug use (hangings and blunt-force trauma). These data will further help forensic practitioners with the interpretation of post-mortem etizolam concentrations.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0025-8024
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0025802420973814
ID  - ref1
ER  -