earticle

영어

Quetiapine is an atypical antipsychotic drug belonging to the benzothiazepine derivatives. We present a case in which suicidal overdose deaths were associated with quetiapine. The dead woman was found on her bed. She had got psychotherapy. Blood specimens and gastric contents were initially subjected to a thorough qualitative analysis. Quetiapine and lorazepam were detected in biological specimens by solid phase extraction and separated by LC/MS/MS. The concentrations of quetiapine and lorazepam were 7.42 mg/L and 0.23 mg/L in heart blood, and 839 g/kg and 0.062 g/kg in gastric contents, respectively. The concentrations of quetiapine in these cases are 7 times greater than the upper reported therapeutic range (0.1 - 1.0 mg/L). The cause of death was considered to be a quetiapine overdose and the other drugs were not considered to be contributory.