Kemba Abdul, L. Hikin, Paul R. Smith
Aug 24, 2020
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Influential Citations
9
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Quality indicators
Journal
Medicine, Science and the Law
Abstract
Flubromazolam is a potent triazole benzodiazepine with moderately long-lasting central nervous system–depressant effects relative to other benzodiazepines such as commonly prescribed diazepam. Flubromazolam has been studied in the living. However, there are no published reports including measured drug concentrations in post-mortem cases. We report five cases in which flubromazolam was detected in a systematic screen using high-resolution mass spectrometry and then quantified in femoral blood. In none of the five cases was the cause of death directly attributed to flubromazolam toxicity, as there was a variety of both sedative and stimulant drugs also present. However, it is important that the drug concentrations that were measured are made available for future post-mortem forensic interpretation.