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Suicide by Medication Overdose in Prison: A Study of Three Cases
Author(s) -
Bartoli Christophe,
BerlandBenhaim Caroline,
TuchtanTorrents Lucile,
Kintz Pascal,
Leonetti Georges,
PelissierAlicot AnneLaure
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of forensic sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.715
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4029
pISSN - 0022-1198
DOI - 10.1111/1556-4029.13671
Subject(s) - prison , drug overdose , medicine , suicide prevention , poison control , medical emergency , injury prevention , human factors and ergonomics , psychiatry , suicide methods , occupational safety and health , emergency medicine , psychology , suicide rates , criminology , pathology
Suicide is one of the principal causes of mortality in a prison environment. Although suicide by medication overdose is less frequent than suicide by hanging, self‐strangulation, or vein cutting, it raises questions as to how the medications are obtained, particularly in view of the specific organization of the medication circuit in prisons. We present three cases of suicide by medication overdose involving different therapeutic classes with different distribution circuits and review the regulatory requirements and the measures that could be taken to prevent such suicides.