Toxicological detection of pholcodine in blood, urine and hair in three cases of fatal intoxication.
Abuse
Blood
Hair
Intoxication
Misuse
Pholcodine
Journal
Forensic science international
ISSN: 1872-6283
Titre abrégé: Forensic Sci Int
Pays: Ireland
ID NLM: 7902034
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
Oct 2021
Oct 2021
Historique:
received:
28
05
2021
revised:
14
08
2021
accepted:
18
08
2021
pubmed:
4
9
2021
medline:
28
10
2021
entrez:
3
9
2021
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
Pholcodine is an opioid antitussive reputed for its low toxicity and absence of addictive effect. We report three cases of pholcodine intoxication with fatal outcome. Large concentrations of pholcodine were quantified by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC/MS) in peripheral postmortem blood (respectively 2890 ng/mL, 979 ng/mL and 12,280 ng/mL). Segmental hair analyses by GC/MS and detected pholcodine in three 1.5-2 cm segments (38-161 ng/mg, 8.54-41.6 ng/mg, and 0.26-2.66 ng/mg, respectively). These findings underline that pholcodine can be involved in fatal poisoning and raise the question of misuse or abuse and of taking account of this drug in opioid overdose prevention policies.
Identifiants
pubmed: 34478894
pii: S0379-0738(21)00295-4
doi: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2021.110975
pii:
doi:
Substances chimiques
Antitussive Agents
0
Morpholines
0
pholcodine
LPP64AWZ7L
Codeine
UX6OWY2V7J
Types de publication
Case Reports
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
110975Informations de copyright
Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
Declaration of Competing Interest None.