PMID- 19796506
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20091027
LR  - 20190513
IS  - 0146-4760 (Print)
IS  - 0146-4760 (Linking)
VI  - 33
IP  - 7
DP  - 2009 Sep
TI  - Methylenedioxymethamphetamine-related deaths in Taiwan: 2001-2008.
PG  - 366-71
AB  - Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) has been one of most popular drugs in the 
      "club" scene in Taiwan. This epidemic was studied through the examination of 
      toxicological data obtained from the 59 fatalities tested positive for MDMA 
      during the period of January 2001 to December 2008. Ketamine was found in 28 of 
      these cases, signifying the popularity of this drug in Taiwan. The annual number 
      of deaths in each of the 8 years in this period was 4, 7, 9, 14, 8, 9, 2, and 6, 
      respectively. Among these 59 deaths, 39 (66.1%) were men, and the mean, median, 
      and range of ages were 24.6, 23, and 14-46, respectively. Causes of death ruled 
      by the attending pathologists and the distributions for these fatalities were 
      acute intoxication, 40 and mechanical injury, 19, including 3 hanging and 2 
      drowning. The manners of death were ruled as accidental, 44; homicidal, 6; 
      suicidal, 7; and undetermined, 2. In this study, postmortem whole blood was 
      analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry with a limit of quantitation at 
      0.05 microg/mL for both MDMA and MDA. The mean, median, and range of MDMA 
      concentrations in the cases, where MDMA acute intoxication was ruled as the cause 
      of death, were 4.75, 2.60, and 0.12-40.41 microg/mL. MDA was found in 30 of these 
      40 cases with the following mean, median, and range data: 0.19, 0.13, and 
      0.05-1.81 microg/mL. The corresponding data of MDMA and MDA in the remaining 19 
      MDMA-related deaths were significantly lower: 1.25, 0.97, 0.08-3.05 and 0.11, 
      0.09, 0.06-0.24 microg/mL, respectively.
FAU - Lin, Dong-Liang
AU  - Lin DL
AD  - Institute of Forensic Medicine, Ministry of Justice, Taipei 106, Taiwan. 
      dllin@mail.moj.gov.tw
FAU - Liu, Hsiu-Chuan
AU  - Liu HC
FAU - Liu, Ray H
AU  - Liu RH
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PL  - England
TA  - J Anal Toxicol
JT  - Journal of analytical toxicology
JID - 7705085
RN  - 0 (Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists)
RN  - 0 (Hallucinogens)
RN  - 690G0D6V8H (Ketamine)
RN  - KE1SEN21RM (N-Methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine)
SB  - IM
MH  - Accidents
MH  - Adolescent
MH  - Adult
MH  - Autopsy
MH  - Cause of Death
MH  - Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists/poisoning
MH  - Female
MH  - Fluorescence Polarization Immunoassay
MH  - Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry
MH  - Hallucinogens/*poisoning
MH  - Homicide
MH  - Humans
MH  - Ketamine/poisoning
MH  - Male
MH  - Myocardium/pathology
MH  - N-Methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine/*poisoning
MH  - Substance-Related Disorders/*mortality/pathology
MH  - Suicide
MH  - Taiwan/epidemiology
MH  - Wounds and Injuries/mortality
MH  - Young Adult
EDAT- 2009/10/03 06:00
MHDA- 2009/10/29 06:00
CRDT- 2009/10/03 06:00
PHST- 2009/10/03 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2009/10/03 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2009/10/29 06:00 [medline]
AID - 10.1093/jat/33.7.366 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - J Anal Toxicol. 2009 Sep;33(7):366-71. doi: 10.1093/jat/33.7.366.