Incidental intoxication with phencyclidine.

Utilizing a sensitive and specific gas chromatography nitrogen detector (GC2-N) method we have demonstrated phencyclidine (PCP) in the blood of a 65-year-old widowed Mexican-American woman who lived in a second floor apartment directly over an illegal laboratory utilizing open-vat methods of PCP synthesis. This is the first proof of such incidental PCP intoxication, although police officers regularly complain of developing symptoms of intoxication after raiding such clandestine laboratories and handling the confiscated products. The presumed mechanism of incidental intoxication with PCP and the psychiatric manifestations of this patient are described and discussed.