Abstract
Lormetazepam is a benzodiazepine widely used as a hypnotic for management of insomnia. It is considered to be a safe drug when not combined with alcohol or other psychoactive substances. Indeed, we could neither fi nd its toxic nor lethal concentrations in the literature. In the present article, we report a fatal case in which lormetazepam and its metabolite lorazepam were the only drugs found in body fl uids. The concentration measured in blood was more than 100 times higher than the therapeutic one. Therefore, we concluded that the death was due to the drug and that the measured levels could be regarded as lethal.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baselt RC (2004) Disposition of toxic drugs and chemicals in man, 7th edn. Biomedical, Foster City, pp 623–624
Repetto MR, Repetto M (1997) Habitual, toxic, and lethal concentrations of 103 drugs of abuse in humans. Clin Toxicol 35:1–9
Winek CL, Wahba WW, Winek CLJr, Balzer TW (2001) Drugs and chemical blood-level data 2001. Forensic Sci Int 122:107–123
The International Association of Forensic Toxicologists (TIAFT) (2007) Reference blood level list of therapeutic and toxic substances. http://www.tiaft.org/tmembers/ttv/ttv_el.php. Accessed Sep 2008
Dams R, Benijts THP, Lambert WE, Van Bocxlaer JF, Van Varenberg D, Van Peteghem C, De Leenheer AP (2001) A fatal case of serotonin syndrome after combined moclobemide-citalopram intoxication. J Anal Toxicol 25:147–151
Uralets VP, Gillette PA, Latven RK (1988) Fruitful application of steroid methodology for drug of abuse testing: comprehensive benzodiazepine screening and confi rmation. In: Schanzer W (ed) Recent advances in doping analysis (5). Proceedings of the 15th Cologne workshop on dope analysis. Verlag Sport und Buch Strauss, Cologne, pp 317–328
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Furnari, C., Ottaviano, V. & De Lellis, M. A fatal case of poisoning by lormetazepam. Forensic Toxicol 26, 85–86 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11419-008-0053-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11419-008-0053-y