Deaths Due to Poisoning Referred to Legal Medicine Organization of Iran

Poisoning due to chemical or pharmaceutical products is a relatively common cause of emergency room admissions in our country. These cases constitute between 0.5 to 2% of emergency room mortalities here. Data relating to poisoning in most developing countries is often patchy. Therefore, it was decided to conduct a study on deaths referred to autopsy division of LMO from June 2000 to June 2001 via an analytical descriptive method. The exact cause of death was determined by considering history and physical examination of emergency rooms and/or clinical toxicology division, physical examination and autopsy finding of the corps and laboratory results. The cases were devided to narcotic, drug and chemical groups and the data were analysed with SPSS software. Out of 8800 cases referred to autopsy division of LMO during 12 months, 10.23% died due to poisonings, one-sixth of whom were females(mostly singles), and the most common age was between 21-30 years. The most common routes of poisoning were IV injection and oral consumption in narcotic and oral consumption in non narcotic group. Intentional and accidental poisoning were seen in 60% and 38% of total cases respectively. 10.7% of deaths were due to drug poisonings and 29.9% due to non narcotic non drug materials. Heroin injection was the main cause in narcotic group. In non narcotics with descending frequency the main causes were TCA, Inderal, CO poisoning and TCA in females whereas Methanol, Organophosphates, CO and Cyanide poisonings in males. 30% of non narcotic deaths were due to tattoos found on the corps body surface. 14% of total cases were students and 10% of deaths took place in the bathroom. With respect to other studies, death age due to narcotic usage is becoming lower with time which may be the result of easier access to street narcotics than before. This study as well as some others in our country showed unemployment states as a predisposing factor to narcotic addiction and suicidal death with these materials.