Methadone concentrations taken as indicating deaths due to overdose need to be reviewed

doi:10.1136/bmj.313.7070.1481a

From trainee to consultant, BMJ Group offers doctors around the world tailored information, special events, learning resources and recruitment services at every step along their career path.

... by doctors, for doctors, for patients
We are open for entries!

Online learning

BMJ Learning

High-quality CME / CPD for doctors and other healthcare professionals. BMJ Learning features hundreds of accredited, peer-reviewed learning modules in text, video, and audio formats. Find out more

Courses and Qualifications

BMJ Masterclasses

BMJ Masterclasses, led by experts, help clinicians to use the latest evidence and recent guidelines in practice and meet their CPD/CME requirements. Find out more

Exam Preparation

The leading provider of online exam preparation, helping over 167,000 healthcare professionals to pass their exams. Find out more

onExamination

Search all BMJ comment articles:

From

Limit by

Access to the full text of this article requires a subscription or payment. Please log in or subscribe below.

John Merrill,
Tim Garvey,
Chris Rosson

Consultant in drug dependence Consultant in drug dependence Clinical manager Drugs North West, Manchester M25 7BL

EDITOR,—We are concerned that recent reports of death from methadone overdose may be greatly exaggerated owing to the use of inappropriately low serum methadone concentrations in attributing cause of death.1 2

Alison Cairns and colleagues do not specify what was considered to be a fatal serum methadone concentration in the 90 cases reported from Manchester,1 but a recent study from Sheffield of deaths …