Alcohol abuse case study

A study involving 332 fatal poisonings in Finland found that alcohol was present in 67% of cases involving amitriptyline, and when alcohol was present, relatively small overdoses of amitriptyline could result in fatal poisoning. It appears that amitriptyline may be more toxic when given with alcohol and it has been suggested that a less dangerous alternative could be chosen when indications of alcohol abuse or suicide risk are present. ... 

Endogenous volatile metabolites are normal by products of intermediate metabolites. Analysis of these metabolites is important in the diagnosis of certain disease states. An example of headspace gas chromatography analysis applied to these metabolites is the determination of ketone bodies (Seto, 1994). Ketone bodies are present in biochemical altered states known as diabetic ketoacidosis, related to diabetics and alcoholic ketoacidosis, a consequence of chronic abuse of alcohol. Studies (Iten Meier, 2000 Pounder, et al., 1998 Thomsen, et al., 1995) indicate that alcoholic ketoacidosis could be the cause of death in alcoholics, in cases of sudden and xmexpected death, where alcohol determination was negative and that an alcoholic ketoacidosis state can be diagnosed with the determination of ketone bodies in postmortem blood samples. Ketone bodies (acetone, acetoacetate and 3-hydroxybutyrate) can be measured separately by gas chromatography headspace. Acetone are determined at a headspace temperature below 60°C to avoid decarboxilation of... 

POHL et al. (1986) evaluated various etiologies for priapism in a study of 230 single case reports in the literature idiopathic causes comprised one-third of the cases, whereas 21% were attributed to alcohol abuse or medications. 

Comparable findings for lifetime prevalence of psychiatric disorders were obtained in another study of 133 persons, which also found that 47% received a concurrent DSM-III diagnosis of substance abuse or dependence (Khantzian and Treece 1985). The most frequently abused substances were sedative-hypnotics (23%), alcohol (14%), and cannabis (13%). Similar rates of psychiatric disorders were found in other studies of drug abusers (Mirin et al. 1986 Woody et al. 1983). Although such diagnoses do not imply causality, and, in many cases, opioid dependence causes or exacerbates psychiatric problems, some causal link seems likely (Regier et al. 1990). 

Research Summary on Relapse Makes Case for Tailored Treatment. Alcohol ir Drug Abuse Weekly, vol. 15, July 28, 2003, pp. Iff. Reports on a research study from the Caron Foundation that drug abusers who have... 

One of the worries about many previous investigations of the effects of solvent abuse has been that, because objective measures to detect current intoxication have rarely been included, it has not been possible to reject the hypothesis that the cases were intoxicated, or at least still subject to the acute effects of solvents, at the time the psychological tests were administered. In order to ensure that the present study was concerned with the long-term effects of solvent abuse rather than the immediate effects of intoxication, it was necessary to be able to detect and, if necessary, exclude those children who were under the acute influence of solvents (or alcohol) at the time of testing. This was done by analyzing breath samples om each child... 

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