A fatality due to alprazolam intoxication

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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, α-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.

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Jenkins, A. J., Levine, B., Locke, J. L., & Smialek, J. E. (1997). A fatality due to alprazolam intoxication. Journal of Analytical Toxicology, 21(3), 218–220. https://doi.org/10.1093/jat/21.3.218

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