Toxicology methadone

This occurs surprisingly often Analyses are frequently requested for inmates of county jails and minimum security prisons where alcohol and drug problems are often rampant. Control and treatment of heroin addicts through methadone clinics also requires toxicological analyses in surveillance of their behavior and response to treatment. It is not unusual for a thousand cases of this type to be submitted each month to a laboratory serving an urban community of one million people. 

B. Widdop. Screening for Drugs of Abuse (II) Cannabinoids, Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, Buprenorphine, Methadone, Barbiturates, Benzodiazepines and Other Drugs. Annals of Clinical Biochemistry 34 (5) (1997) 460-510 Shannon, M. Toxicology Reviews Physostigmine. Pediatric Emergency Care 14 (3) (1998) 224-226. 

A review of 139 methadone-related deaths between 1998 and 2002 in Palm Beach County supported those of previous investigations and suggested that it is not possible to establish a definitive lethal methadone blood concentration range. Methadone-related death is usually associated with the use of other drugs and toxicological analysis in such cases should be contextualized by the clinical circumstances surrounding the event and even a few months before the incident occurred (50). 

Leikin JB, Paloucek FP, Methadone. In Leikin JB ed. Leikin Paloucek s poisoning toxicology handbook 3" Hudson, OH Lexi-Comp, Inc, 2002 806-8. 

The potential role of methadone in drug deaths has been highlighted in some countries. Research shows that substitution treatment reduces the risks of drug-related death. However, since methadone substitution has increased substantially in Europe (see Chapter 4), toxicological examinations of overdoses, AIDS deaths or accidents increasingly indicate the presence of methadone, regard-... 

A. Specific levels. Assays exist for semm and urine analysis, but are not generally available. In seven fatal infant cases, blood levels averaged 0.38 mg/L (range 0.10-0.95). Despite its stmctural similarity to opioids, dextromethorphan is not likely to produce a false-positive urine opioid immunoassay screen. However, it may produce a false-positive result on methadone and phencyclidine immunoassays. Dextromethorphan is readily detected by comprehensive urine toxicology screening. 

Darke S, Dufiou J, Torok M. The comparative toxicology and major organ pathology of fatal methadone and heroin toxicity cases. Drug Alcohol Depend 2010 106(1) 1-6. 

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