Fatal doxepin intoxication--suicide or slow gradual intoxication?

Forensic Sci Int. 2013 Apr 10;227(1-3):82-4. doi: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2012.08.050. Epub 2012 Sep 19.

Abstract

The differentiation of intoxication courses is one of the most difficult challenges for forensic pathologists and toxicologists. The case of a 52-year-old female inpatient of a psychiatric clinic with multiple medications who died from doxepin intoxication is reported. Concentrations of doxepin metabolites and isomers, pharmacokinetic modelling and genotyping of the doxepin-metabolizing cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes led to the following conclusion: the lethal doxepin concentration of 2100 ng/mL was more likely to have been reached due to drug interactions and genetic peculiarities leading to a reduction of the metabolic capacity and not by an acute (suicidal) overdose.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Antidepressive Agents, Tricyclic / blood
  • Antidepressive Agents, Tricyclic / pharmacokinetics*
  • Antidepressive Agents, Tricyclic / poisoning*
  • Aryl Hydrocarbon Hydroxylases / genetics
  • Chromatography, Liquid
  • Cytochrome P-450 CYP2C19
  • Cytochrome P-450 CYP2C9
  • Cytochrome P-450 CYP2D6 / genetics
  • Doxepin / blood
  • Doxepin / pharmacokinetics*
  • Doxepin / poisoning*
  • Drug Interactions
  • Female
  • Forensic Toxicology
  • Genotype
  • Hospitals, Psychiatric
  • Humans
  • Middle Aged
  • Mutation
  • Pharmacogenetics
  • Suicide
  • Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Substances

  • Antidepressive Agents, Tricyclic
  • Doxepin
  • CYP2C9 protein, human
  • Cytochrome P-450 CYP2C9
  • Aryl Hydrocarbon Hydroxylases
  • CYP2C19 protein, human
  • Cytochrome P-450 CYP2C19
  • Cytochrome P-450 CYP2D6