The legal context of voluntary and involuntary intoxication is delineated. The author reports a case of involuntary intoxication involving scopolamine toxic psychosis or delirium, in which he testified as a psychiatric expert witness. The specific psychological and physiological symptomatology produced by scopolamine intoxication is outlined. The forensic psychiatrist should be alert to the inv...

The defense of involuntary intoxication has long been an exception to the general notion that intoxication is not a defense to criminal liability. The consumption of medications prescribed by a physician can form the basis of an involuntary-intoxication defense. In this article, I review cases where defendants relied on the use of prescribed medications for an involuntary-intoxication defense. ...

Alcohol-related falls are recognized as a major contributor to the occurrence of traumatic brain injury. The control of upright standing balance is complex and composes of contributions from several partly independent mechanisms such as appropriate information from multiple sensory systems and correct feedback and feed forward movement control. Analysis of multisegmented body movement offers a ...

PURPOSE To investigate the impact of alcohol intoxication and withdrawal on the course of social phobia and panic disorder. METHOD A group of 41 alcoholic inpatients undergoing detoxification therapy were interviewed using the SCID-I (DSM-IV) and questions to detect fluctuations in the course of social phobia and panic disorder as a function of the different phases in alcohol dependence (into...

In 2009, Andrew Simester’s article ‘Intoxication is Never a Defence’ effectively highlighted a point he described as ‘a simple one, and not entirely new’; that despite the longstanding (and enduring) description of the intoxication rules as a defence, this is not (and never has been) accurate.1 The classification of intoxication as a defence is one of the criminal law’s more peculiar self-delus...

Background Acute alcohol intoxication has been associated with cardiac arrhythmias but the electrocardiogram (ECG) changes associated with acute alcohol intoxication are not well defined in the literature. Objective Highlight the best evidence regarding the ECG changes associated with acute alcohol intoxication in otherwise healthy patients and the pathophysiology of the changes. Methods A ...

Multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) has rarely been described in patients with heroin intoxication. Here, we report a rare case of MODS involving six organs, due to heroin intoxication. The patient was a 32-yearold Chinese man with severe heroin intoxication complicated by acute pulmonary edema and respiratory insufficiency, shock, myocardial damage and cardiac insufficiency, rhabdomyoly...

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of arterial blood gases (ABGs) in determining the type of intoxication. Methods: Medical charts of all patients who had referred to the toxicology ward of Baharloo Hospital between January 2009 and December 2009 were evaluated. After excluding the patients with multi-drug toxicity, data, including age, sex, type of intoxication ...

When guinea pigs are fed large amounts of botulinus toxin, they develop symptoms of intoxication within 6 hours and die usually within 12 hours after the feeding of toxin. If very large amounts of toxin are introduced intraperitoneally, the animals may show symptoms of intoxication at the end of the 1st hour and die usually within 2 hours following the administration of toxin. If these animals ...

AIMS To assess associations between measures of premises-level alcohol-related harm and risk factors for harm. METHODS Thirty-two licensed premises with a history of on-premises violent assault were recruited. An environmental survey of the drinking context of each premises was undertaken. Levels of patron intoxication were assessed using a breathalyser and a visual assessment of customers at...