Postmortem Toxicology of Abused Drugs

<p><b>Extracted from the Drug Abuse Handbook 2nd edition to give you just the information you need at an affordable price.</b></p><p><b>Postmortem Toxicology of Abused Drugs</b> considers the role of toxicology in the investigation of homicide suicide accident natural death and overdose. It gives practical insights and case reviews on conducting toxicology tests and completing toxicology reports. It explains chain of custody; specimen collection and security; sampling of blood urine bile and vitreous humor; and the selection of post-mortem specimens. Analyzing various testing procedures the book covers simple chemical tests microdiffusion tests chromatography spectroscopy and more. It also discusses methods and strategies for analysis; and covers quality assurance protocols and controls. To help avoid common pitfalls the text demonstrates the proper interpretation of postmortem drug levels based on knowledge of pharmacokinetics metabolism and pharmacogenetics; post-mortem redistribution and diffusion; and other considerations such as synergistic toxicity and drug instability. Heavily referenced and containing several tables figures and useful appendices this book is a handy reference for forensic scientists and medical examiners involved with death investigation.</p>