Two fatalities involving phenelzine.

Phenelzine is a drug commonly used in the treatment of depression. Fatalities due to phenelzine have been infrequently reported in the medical literature. The authors report two cases in which phenelzine levels in blood at autopsy were 10-50 times greater than therapeutic levels. Although in both cases other drugs were present in elevated levels, the concentrations of phenelzine were so greatly elevated as to be considered as an independent cause of death.

Insect larvae used to detect cocaine poisoning in a decomposed body.

Insect larvae are often found on human remains long after disappearance of the usual toxicologic specimens. It is important for forensic pathologists and toxicologists to recognize the potential of this unique specimen when routine specimens are not available. Cocaine and benzoylecgonine was extracted from Calliphorid larvae found on a badly decomposed body of a man who had been missing 5 months and was also identified in the decomposing skeletal muscle. This toxicologic information combined with the autopsy findings and the circumstances of the death and disappearance was essential in the determination of cocaine poisoning as the cause of death.