Overdose and Death With Olanzapine

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Olanzapine is an antipsychotic drug that has been on the market since 1996. Olanzapine-related deaths are very rare; the literature reports only one. However, in a recent 5-month period one medical examiner's office found two such cases that are reported in this paper. One is a suicide and the other is not. The toxicologic and anatomic findings for each are described. Blood olanzapine concentrations ranged from 0.237 μg/ml for one to 0.675 μg/ml for the other. Gastric content concentrations also exhibited a wide range, varying from 0.197 μg/ml to 17.400 μg/ml for the other. Distribution studies of the liver, kidney, and brain produced nondetectable concentrations for the drug. There were no consistent pathologic anatomic findings for cause of death except for moderate coronary atherosclerosis in the nonsuicide case. Both deaths were attributed to olanzapine toxicity.

This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit: