Carbamazepine Overdose after Psychiatric Conditions: A Case Study for Postmortem Analysis in Human Bone

Carbamazepine is the main option used as a preventive medication to treat bipolar disorder when there is no response to lithium. Carbamazepine toxicity is defined as serum levels greater than 12 mu g/mL, with severe toxicity occurring over 40 mu g/mL, reduced to 30 mu g/mL when combined with pharmacological treatment, i.e., benzodiazepines or antidepressants. For these reasons, it is necessary to find a validated tool to determine carbamazepine levels in an autopsy to rule out suicide or to know if the death was a consequence of an adverse drug reaction (ADR), especially when only bones can be accessed. We have validated a tool to detect and quantify drug concentration in bone. Our results showed a peak for carbamazepine at minute 12 and a mass fragment of 193 m/z. This case study is the first time in the literature that carbamazepine has been detected and quantified in bone. These results demonstrate that carbamazepine can be detected in bone tissue from forensic cases, but almost more importantly, that the method proposed is valid, reliable, and trustworthy.

Automated summary

The study validated a tool to detect and quantify carbamazepine concentration in bone tissue. The results demonstrated that carbamazepine can be detected in bone and the proposed method is valid, reliable, and trustworthy.