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Deaths from Paracetamol and Dextropropoxyphene (Distalgesic) Poisoning in England and Wales in 1979

West Midlands Poisons Unit, Dudley Road Hospital, Birmingham B 18 7QH, Royal College of Physicians of London

B.M. Buckley

West Midlands Poisons Unit, Dudley Road Hospital, Birmingham B 18 7QH

T.J. Meredith

Guy's Hospital, London SE1 9RT, UK

1 Paracetamol and dextropropoxyphene were implicated on clinical and analytical grounds in 237 poison deaths in England and Wales in 1979. In addition to paracetamol, dextropropoxyphene and ethanol, other agents were detected in 61 of these cases (26%).

2 Analytical evidence suggests that very substantial overdoses of paracetamol and dextropropoxyphene were ingested in the majority of cases; their mean plasma concentrations in those ingesting no other agents were 252 and 8.64 mg/l respectively.

3 Significant quantities of ethanol were ingested in 133 of 237 cases (56%). The mean ethanol concentration in those in whom quantitative estimations of paracetamol, dextropropoxyphene and ethanol were undertaken and who had not ingested other drugs, was 1588 mg/l.

4 There was no analytical support for the diagnosis of paracetamol and dextropropoxyphene poisoning in 74 of 305 cases (24%) of H.M. Coroners' returns to the Office of Population, Censuses and Surveys for the period 1 January-31 December 1979. In addition, dextropropoxyphene was detected analytically in six cases classified as being due to paracetamol alone.

Human & Experimental Toxicology, Vol. 3, No. 1 suppl, 135s-143S (1984)
DOI: 10.1177/096032718400300114


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