ABSTRACT
Objective To analyze the forensic characteristics of 24 psychiatric patients who died of long-term use of psychotropic drugs.Methods Cases of sudden death of psychiatric patients from2011 to 2016 were collected.The forensic characteristics of these sudden deaths were retrospectively analyzed by systematic investigation plus results of autopsy and toxics (drugs).Results Among the 24psychiatric patients who died of long-term use of psychotropic substances, the ratio of male to female was 1.7∶1, and the average age was (59.0±8.8) years.Fifteen patients had clear disease durations (14.4±8.2) years, and other the nine were known to have disease durations of over 3 years.The death time of 62.5％of patients was the daytime in working days, and 91.7％of the patients died at home.Most patients complained different degrees of physical discomfort before death.Patients with schizophrenia (20 cases) were the most common, followed by depression (4 cases).All patients had the history of taking psychotropic drugs, with clozapine and chlorpromazine being the mostly detected ones.The causes of death were mainly circulatory diseases (15 cases), with the most common being myocarditis (11 cases) followed by pneumonia (4 cases).Conclusion Critical attention should be paid to the risk of antipsychotics-induced sudden unexpected deaths for psychiatric patients, particularly for those with schizophrenia.
ABSTRACT
Objective To analyze the forensic characteristics of deaths in patients with mentally disordered and to provide instructions for forensic evaluation and clinical care.Methods All fatal cases were collected from Hongkou Branch of Shanghai Public Security Bureau from 2013 to 2016.The causes of death,manners of death and their relationship with other factors were statistically analyzed based on systemic case investigation.Results There were a total of 134 fatal cases with mental disorders.The male female ratio was 1 ∶ 1.23 and the mean age at death was (54.9 ± 17.6) years old.In all patients 89 cases (66.4％) had a clinical course of mental illness over 3 years,and 106 cases (79.1％) had a regular prescription of medications prior to deaths.Depression was the most common entity (94 cases),followed by schizophrenia (35 cases) and anxiety (5 cases).According to the manner of death,117 cases (87.3％) were suicidal,16 cases (11.9％) were sudden unexpected deaths,and 1case (0.7％) was accidental death.Fall was the most frequent manner in the suicidal cases (79 cases,58.9 ％).Compared with suicides,cases that died suddenly and unexpectedly had a significantly longer course of mental disorder and medication use,and were more likely occurred inside their residences.Conclusions The psychological status of patients with mentally disordered should be intensively monitored,and their physical health should also be taken care of.
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Objective To characterize alcohol-related deaths which were not caused by traffic accident in Shanghai and to provide data support for alcohol-related policy and intervention.Methods All alcohol-positive fatal deaths collected in 2007-2016 from Shanghai Public Security Bureau were classified based on blood alcohol concentration (BAC) and distributed by year,gender,age,season,cause of death (COD),manner of death (MOD) and combined drugs.Results There was no significant correlation of alcohol BAC with year or season.Males (88.4％) were more than females (11.6％).Age of 20-39 years (57.1％),mechanical injury (70.1％),homicide (64.6％) and combined illicit use (37.2％) were the largest proportions in respective categories of age,COD,MOD and drug combination.With the BAC rising,mechanical injury and homicide showed decreased proportions,while burn and accidents showed increased proportions.Conclusions Male and the age of 20-39 years are the major populations for alcohol-related deaths in Shanghai.With the rise of BAC,mechanical injury and homicide decrease,while burn and accident increase.Among the combined use of alcohol and drugs,death from acute intoxication should be paid special attention.
ABSTRACT
microRNA (miRNA or miR) is a small single stranded non-coding RNA (21-25nt) that regulates gene expression in almost creatures. Currently, plenty of researches on how miRNA affects human cardiovascular disease have been reported. This review highlights recent findings about the role of miRNA in heart tissue and circulation correlated with human cardiovascular disease and explores the application of miRNA in sudden cardiac death in forensic science.