NCJ Number
116105
Journal
Journal of the Forensic Science Society Volume: 28 Issue: 5-6 Dated: (1988) Pages: 311-319
Date Published
1988
Length
9 pages
Annotation
Data from all 1140 known cases of death from acute fatal poisoning submitted for autopsy at the Institutes of Forensic medicine in Oslo, Norway or Aarhus, Denmark during 1981-85 were examined to determine the causes of death.
Abstract
Results revealed that in both populations, two-thirds of the deaths were caused by drugs, and alcohol was detected in approximately half of these cases. Antidepressive and neuroleptic drugs predominated in the cases from Oslo, while poisoning with Dextropropoxyphene was the most common cause of death in the cases from Aarhus. Barbiturate overdose was seen more frequently in cases investigated in Aarhus than in Oslo, but in both countries intoxication with these drugs declined during the period surveyed. The number of cases in which the person had been a drug addict was similar in the two countries. The cause of death among Norwegian addicts was mainly heroin or morphine, while most of the Danish drug addicts died from an overdose of a legally approved drug. Figures, tables, and 15 references