Five years audit for presence of toxic agents/drug of abuse at autopsy.

OBJECTIVE

To know the frequency of fatal poisoning in Peshawar regarding the toxic agents mostly involved and yearwise percentage. To know the age group and the gender that is most vulnerable to fatal poisoning.

DESIGN

Non-interventional (descriptive) type.

PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY

This study was conducted over a period of five years (1997-2001) at Forensic Medicine Department, Khyber Medical College, Peshawar.

METHODOLOGY

The study included 3508 autopsies conducted at Khyber Medical College, Peshawar. Out of these, 52 cases were those caused by fatal poisoning. These were analyzed according to age, gender and the toxic agent involved. t-test was applied as the test of significance.

RESULTS

Poisoning was the cause of death in 1.48% of the total autopsies conducted during the five years. Males were more involved than the females, 90.38 %. Suicidal poisoning was present in 17.30% of the total cases and accidental poisoning was found in 80.72% cases, while homicidal cases were 1.29% only. Diacetylmorphine (heroin) was the most commonly involved agent, 65.38 %, of the total cases. The incidence of poisoning was more during the third and fourth decades of life.

CONCLUSION

Diacetylmorphine (heroin) was the main causative agent involved in young males due to accidental over- dosage. Accidental and suicidal deaths should not be considered as inevitable. More elaborative studies are required in this area of recent research to adopt appropriate and adequate measures to save precious lives.