الفهرس 
Introduction and aim of the workOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
This work included detection of the incidence and prevalence of postmortem detection of drugs and toxins in Minofiya, Gharbiya, Kafr Elshekh according to residence , age, sex, type of detected drugs and toxins with their relations to the cause of death, date of incident and the marital status of suicide victims.
Drugs of abuse are described under two major headings : form and origin classification ( natural plant material , derived plant material , semisynthetic drugs and synthetic drugs ) , pharmacological classification ( narcotic analgesics , CNS stimulants , hallucinogens , hypnotics/tranquilizers and miscellaneous.
Alcohol abuse during adolescence, especially early adolescence (i.e. before age 15), may lead to long-term changes in the brain which leaves them at increased risk of alcoholism in later years; genetic factors also influence age of onset of alcohol abuse and risk of alcoholism.
A wide variety of body fluid specimens have been utilized for analysis for the presence of drugs of abuse ( blood , urine , bile , gastric contents , vitreous humor , tissues , hair , skeletal muscle , meconium , bone and bonemarrow ) . Urine is the most widely used specimen for such routine drugs-of-abuse testing, but several “alternative” specimens are establishing their place as suitable for drug testing , Each specimen provides different information about time and extent of use and likelihood of impairment.
Dying imparts a number of special processes that affect the collection and analysis of specimens obtained at autopsy ; Redistribution causes alterations of drug concentrations within tissue elements and diffusion from one tissue to another and this process is particularly significant for drugs with high lipid solubility ( digoxin – Proxyphene ) , Metabolism and bioconversion , a number of drugs can undergo chemical changes in the body after death ( heroin ).
Analytical toxicology is an applied science used for detection and measurement of toxicologically relevant concentrations of potent new drugs using instrumental technology.
Immunoassay technology , now a mainstay of drug screening protocols , first became commercially available only about 25 years ago. At that time, classical thin-layer chromatography (TLC), packed column gas chromatography, strip chart recorders, and ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry were the state of the art in toxicology laboratories.
Over the intervening years, capillary column gas chromatography, solid-phase extraction technology, nitrogenphosphorus gas chromatography detectors, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), ion trap mass spectrometry , and computerized mass spectrometry have become essential to the practice of postmortem toxicology.
Suicide is specifically a common cause of death among young adults and the pattern of suicidal deaths reveals the existing social and psychological state of mind of the people of a region , Suicide methods can be classified according to two modes of interrupting one’s life processes : physical or chemical 0 Physical modes of interruption typically act by incapacitating the respiratory system or the central nervous system, usually by destruction of one or more key components ( e.g. hanging , firearm injuries , falling from height , drowning , elecrtocaution and bleeding ) 0 Chemical modes focus on interrupting biologically significant processes such as cellular respiration or diffusion capacity ( Insecticides poisoning , drug overdose , carbon monoxide poisoning , disease , starvation and dehydration ).
In this work , all positive cases - in whom any drug or toxin was found in their examined tissues - were collected from the medicolegal chemistry lab in Tanta that serves Minofiya, Gharbiya and Kafr Elshekh governorates starting from the year of 2008 till the end of 2012 , then data about the positive cases was collected from medico-legal authority records in Minofiya, Gharbiya, Kafr Elshekh governorates .
Carbon monoxide caused death in twenty two cases , twenty of them died accidently and two cases died an a homicidal manner.
Substances of abuse were found as thirty three times ( 28 % ) including tramadol , hashish , phenothiazines , benzodiazepines , morphine and alcohol especially during the years of 2009 and 20110 Tramadol was the most frequent detected abused substance and most of the victims were known to be addict and a small number of victims used substances of abuse for commiting suicide .
Two substances of abuse were co-ingested together ( tramadol with aphenothiazine – tramadol with cannabis ). Middle aged males ( 20 – 40 years ) represented the majority of abusers.
Substances of abuse caused death ( suicidal or accidental ) in less than one third of cases ( 26 % ) , cases of detected co-ingestion of two substances of abuse all died.
Ingestion of insecticides was the commonest way to commit suicide in both males and females ( 81.20 % ) , Less commonly , suicide was commited by chemical poisoning using different drugs and toxins for examples phenothiazines , benzodiazepines , phenol and kerosene.
Middle ages ( 20 – 50 years – 71 % ) represented the majority of victims of both males and females especially non-married ( 58 % ) , females represented the majority of victims of young and middle ages but in old age ( >50 years ) , male predominated0
Suicide attacks was found to be higher in the year of 2010.
There is a minor effect of weather on suicide as there was slight increase in the number of suicide attacks during summer periods.