Browse the latest forensic toxicology articles or search the collection.
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Validation Limits of an 82-Drug Blood Assay in Autopsy Specimens
An LC–MS/MS method covered 82 drugs, but six missed specified quantitative criteria. Postmortem testing assessed selectivity and matrix effects in ten specimens, rather than repeating every validation experiment in decomposed blood.
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Designer Benzodiazepines in 21 Autopsies: Why the Reported Blood Concentrations Were Not Lethal Ranges
A Norwegian study separated 21 autopsies from 554 living forensic cases. The authors did not know the autopsy causes of death, so its concentrations cannot be relabeled fatal thresholds or used to infer earlier impairment.
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Novel Benzodiazepines in 140 Victorian Overdose Deaths: Contribution Was More Than Detection
A Victorian registry study tracked changing novel benzodiazepines in 140 overdose deaths. Its inclusion rule required a contributory role, while overlapping drugs and subjective temporal clusters limited causal and market comparisons.
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Did Oxytocin Research Establish a Treatment for Methamphetamine Use? Reading a 2020 Review
A historical review described promising methamphetamine findings in animal models, but its human treatment evidence concerned other substances. Routes, behavioral endpoints and unresolved mechanisms limited clinical translation.
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Methamphetamine Was Intended, but an Opioid Overdose Was Recorded: What 32 Cases Can Establish
A San Francisco record review identified 32 overdose events in which methamphetamine was the reported intended substance. The study distinguished reported intent from a clinically classified event, but did not establish how fentanyl entered a drug supply.
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Benzoylecgonine Lost Before Mass Spectrometry: Why Extraction Recovery Matters in Autopsy Blood Testing
A postmortem blood method-development study lost more than 90% of benzoylecgonine during one extraction wash. Changing the wash improved recovery; accurate mass alone could not compensate for a preparation loss.
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Xylazine Testing in Living People Does Not Validate a Postmortem Blood–Urine Conversion
An Ankara study detected xylazine in urine from 28 living people but reported blood detection in seven. Its matrix-specific performance and absence of autopsy cases limit use in postmortem interpretation.
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Cocaine After Death: Early and Autopsy Blood Could Change in Opposite Directions by Sampling Site
Paired postmortem cocaine samples showed increases, decreases and little change depending on site. Early scene blood was already postmortem, and small overlapping subsets did not establish a correction to the concentration during life.
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Does Tolerance to Cocaine’s Dopamine Effect Imply Tolerance to Amphetamine?
A rat study found reduced cocaine effects at the dopamine transporter while selected amphetamine responses remained intact. The findings argue for drug- and endpoint-specific interpretation of tolerance.
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Do CB2-Receptor Mouse Experiments Establish Human Vulnerability to Methamphetamine Psychosis?
A genetic mouse study found endpoint-specific differences in methamphetamine responses. Sensitization, startle gating and social preference were experimental measures, not diagnoses or validated human genetic-risk estimates.
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Does More Movement Mean Amphetamine Is More Rewarding? What Rat Vocalizations Added
A 30-rat study found different patterns for movement and frequency-modulated calls after amphetamine. Calling was an indirect behavioral measure, and neither outcome established subjective pleasure or later compulsive use.
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Does Amphetamine Cross-Sensitization With Methylphenidate Predict Human Dependence?
A female-rat experiment found larger activity responses after prior exposure to another stimulant. Cross-sensitization described a laboratory motor endpoint, not proof that prescribed treatment causes later dependence.
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Can Developmental PCB Exposure Change Amphetamine Responses Without Changing a Single Drug Measurement?
PCB-exposed male rats showed a different course of amphetamine-related activity, despite no detected exposure-group difference in a later brain or blood measurement. One sampling point could not establish identical pharmacokinetics.
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Did One Amphetamine Infusion “Repair” Cocaine-Related Brain Changes? What Rat Dopamine Measurements Showed
A female-rat study found changes in selected dopamine-transporter measurements after one amphetamine infusion. Tissue-level normalization was not evidence of brain repair, clinical recovery or equal effects across sexes.
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Were Amphetamine Dependence Subtypes Distinct Biological Groups? Reading a Historical Symptom-Cluster Study
A 2009 analysis grouped 99 primary amphetamine users by self-reported DSM-IV symptoms. The model described heterogeneity in a treatment sample; it did not identify biological subtypes or establish current diagnostic rules.
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Did a High-Sugar Diet Blunt Amphetamine’s Feeding Effects? What an Eight-Baboon Study Could Establish
An experiment did not support the predicted reduction in amphetamine sensitivity during periodic candy access. Persistent changes after candy stopped, shifting baselines and a fixed phase order limited a dietary causal interpretation.
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Why a Promising Methamphetamine Research Compound Was Halted: The GZ-793A Evidence
Early rat studies found reduced methamphetamine reinforcement with GZ-793A. Later cell and cardiac-tissue experiments revealed liabilities that led the investigators to abandon its development—a reminder that efficacy and safety are separate questions.
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Why Active Cocaine Seeking Mattered During Continuous Amphetamine Exposure in Animal Studies
Rat and rhesus-monkey experiments suggest that timing and experience with cocaine helped determine later responding after continuous d-amphetamine exposure. The findings support a learning hypothesis, not a human treatment instruction.
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Why Reported Reasons for Methamphetamine–Opioid Co-Use Are Not Evidence That the Drugs “Balance”
Interviews collected in 2018–2019 documented varied reasons for methamphetamine–opioid co-use. They explain participants’ decisions, but do not verify overdose reversal, improved work performance or population prevalence.
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What Does Blocking Amphetamine-Disrupted Prepulse Inhibition Show? An NT69L Rat Experiment
An experimental neurotensin agonist retained effects in an amphetamine challenge model after 21 days. The endpoint was sensorimotor gating, and the study did not demonstrate treatment of human psychosis.