Citation

Jenkins AJ, Levine B, Locke JL, Smialek JE. J. Anal. Toxicol. 1997; 21(3): 218-220.

Affiliation

Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, State of Maryland, Baltimore 21201, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, Preston Publications)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

9171206

Abstract

Alprazolam is one of the most widely prescribed benzodiazepines in the United States. It is generally considered a safe and effective drug for the treatment of anxiety disorders and panic attacks. Few overdoses that are due to the sole ingestion of alprazolam have been reported. This paper documents a fatality due to alprazolam intoxication and describes the distribution of alprazolam and an active metabolite, alpha-hydroxyalprazolam, in tissues obtained at autopsy. Qualitative identification of the drugs was achieved by full-scan gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and quantitative analysis was performed by high-performance liquid chromatography. High concentrations of alprazolam were found in all specimens analyzed, but the metabolite was detected only in subclavian blood, urine, bile, and liver. A postmortem heart blood alprazolam concentration of 2.1 mg/L is the highest reported in the literature to date.

Language: en