Fatal doxepin intoxication - Suicide or slow gradual intoxication?

Abstract

The differentiation of intoxication courses is one of the most difficult challenges for forensic pathologists and toxicologists. The case of a 52-year-old female inpatient of a psychiatric clinic with multiple medications who died from doxepin intoxication is reported. Concentrations of doxepin metabolites and isomers, pharmacokinetic modelling and genotyping of the doxepin-metabolizing cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes led to the following conclusion: the lethal doxepin concentration of 2100ng/mL was more likely to have been reached due to drug interactions and genetic peculiarities leading to a reduction of the metabolic capacity and not by an acute (suicidal) overdose.