CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 34Forensic Toxicology and Drug AnalysisPoisoning and overdose treatmentsOpioid Use Disorder Treatment

Fatal drug poisonings: Medico-legal reports and mortality statistics

Lahti, R.A., Vuori, E.·2003·Forensic Science International
DOI 10.1016/s0379-0738(03)00223-8
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

The entire fatal drug poisoning panorama in Finland is considered in terms of three catergories: accidental, self-inflicted and undetermined (whether accidental or with intent to harm) deaths. The study material consisted of all 500 deaths in 1997 that medical examiners, after examination(s) at the Forensic Toxicology Division (FTD) of the Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Helsinki, officially certified as resulting from drug poisoning. These deaths were matched with data on the same deaths registered at Statistics Finland (SF), the national mortality statistics office. The SF register included 72 additional instances of deaths resulting from drug poisoning. In all but two of these cases, the cause-of-death determination was based on a medico-legal inquest with autopsy and forensic toxicological examination(s) and was certified, in most of the cases, as due to the alcohol component in multiple-toxicant combinations. Reclassifying these deaths at SF to the category of drug component is in accordance with current International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) regulation of coding "to the medicinal agent when combined with alcohol"; the principle and practice, which is recommended to be amended to equalize the status of alcohol and drug when explicitly stated by a forensic examiner as the principal toxicant in combined poisonings. With regard to manner-of-death, the agreement rates between medico-legally proven deaths from drug poisoning and those registered at S…

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/s0379-0738(03)00223-8

Cites

4 of 4 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • In Finland, toxicological analysis showed 30.9% tested positive for benzodiazepines, 21.7% for alcohol, 16.3% for cocaine and methamphetamines, 9.2% for SSRIs, 8.3% for cannabinoids, 3.9% for NSAIDs, 2.9% for opiates, and 1.8% for methadone.

    “On toxicological analysis, 30.9% of the subjects tested positive for benzodiazepines, 21.7% for alcohol, 16.3% for cocaine and methamphetamines, 9.2% for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, 8.3% for cannabinoids, 3.9% for non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, 2.9% for opiates, and 1.8% for methadone.”

    From Toxicological Findings of Self-Poisoning Suicidal Deaths: A Systematic Review by Countries (2022) · cites this paper as [40]

  • In Finland, Lahti et al. analyzed 500 autopsies where death was related to poison intake; 325 (65%) were suicides, 99 (19.8%) accidental, and 76 (15.2%) undetermined.

    “A study published in 2003 by Lahti et al. [40] in Finland analyzed 500 autopsies conducted in 1997 where the mechanism of death was related to poison intake. Of these, 325 (65%) were cases of suicides, 99 (19.8%) were cases of accidental death, and 76 (15.2%) were undetermined.”

    From Toxicological Findings of Self-Poisoning Suicidal Deaths: A Systematic Review by Countries (2022) · cites this paper as [40]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Lahti, R. A., & Vuori, E.
Affiliations
University of Helsinki (FI)
Corresponding author
Lahti, R.A.
Venue
Forensic Science International
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2003-09
Volume
136
Issue
1-3
Pages
35-46
ISSN
0379-0738 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/s0379-0738(03)00223-8
OpenAlex
W1998469422
Cited by
34
References
4
Citations by year
2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 1
FWCI
1.26
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations
  • Forensic Science International (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics › Toxicology › Forensic Toxicology and Drug Analysis
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Emergency Medicine › Poisoning and overdose treatments
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Opioid Use Disorder Treatment
Keywords
cause of death classification, mortality statistics, suicide, accidental death, manner of death, ICD-10 coding, ATC classification, opioid toxicity, Finland
MeSH terms
Adult, Death Certificates, Pharmaceutical Preparations, Female, Finland, Forensic Medicine, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Poisoning, Suicide

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review