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Biomedical subjects

D Harding-Pink

Publications and source records attributed to D Harding-Pink.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

Assessing death by poisoning: does the medical history help?

During one year we sought medical historical data for all medico-legal autopsies with toxicological analysis (n = 51); the same procedure was applied to a control group of autopsies without toxicological analysis. Historical data was available in 70 cases (69%), the proportion being significantly higher among cases where the cause of death was poisoning (84%) than in the non-poisoning cases (48%). In the poisoning cases information was more often available from the emergency service, the psychiatric service and the prison medical service. Autopsy observations revealed a higher proportion of prior pathology than the medical history. But in a minority of cases, potentially significant prior illnesses were shown by the medical history and not at the autopsy (for example, in cases of advanced decomposition and in cases with no pathological lesions: idiopathic epilepsy; HIV infection). Historical data was judged to make some contribution to the conclusions concerning the cause of death in 71% of the cases of poisoning. The most important single contribution was the assessment of dependence status among drug or alcohol abusing subjects.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Mortality following release from prison.

We have studied deaths occurring after release from prison in the Canton of Geneva during the period 1982-86. The mortality rate during the first year after release was about 5 deaths/1000 person years, a rate over four times the age-adjusted rate in the general population. The majority of deaths were due to overdose by opiate drugs among young, frequently imprisoned drug abusers, and occurred within the first few weeks after release. Likely risk factors include loss of tolerance to opiates while in prison, and psychological and social stresses following release.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Deaths associated with methadone].

Used as early as 1946 as an analgesic then to treat heroin addicts, the addicting and toxic potential of methadone was quickly recognized. 25 deaths between 1981 and 1986 were reportedly due to methadone in Geneva of which 2 were violent deaths, 9 were caused by a combination of opiates and methadone and 14 were directly related to methadone. Three deaths were noted during the two first weeks of methadone substitutive therapy. Six were noted less than two weeks before leaving jail and 15 were associated with benzodiazepine ingestion. Postmortem blood levels cannot help determine the severity of poisoning neither a causal relationship between methadone and death. Pathological findings as well as the medical history should be taken into consideration.

Humans↗