Toxicology Flashcards
A lethal dose is typically….
Higher than a therapeutic dose
Symptoms of a stimulant
Reduced appetite
Elevated heart rate
Increased blood pressure
Fatal dose varies based on
Weight and gender
Free base
The amino group within the cocaine has lost a hydrogen atom
Crack cocaine
Makes a crackling sound when heated to the volatilization point
Xenobiotic
Substances foreign to the body
The main reason driving the production of designer drugs is
A desire to avoid legal controls
Retention time
The time when a compound emerges from the chromatography column
Which bodily fluid doesn’t putrefy quickly?
Vitreous humor
Some schedule I drugs
Heroin
MDMA
LSD
Marijuana
Bath salts
(no nationwide approved medical use)
ADME
Absorption
Distribution
Metabolism
Excretion
Opiate
Large class of drugs capable of relieving pain and causing euphoria
What kind of change does a drug cause once ingested?
Physiological
Forensic Drug Analysis
process of examining and identifying materials which contain controlled substances (i.e., drugs) and/or their precursors
Chromatography
physical method of separation that works by partitioning complex mixtures of substances into individual components based on interactions between a stationary and mobile phase
Gas chromatography
Thin hollow tube, walls of tube are coated with a viscous liquid, mobilephase is an inert gas
Liquid chromatography
mobile phase is pushed through the stationary phase with high pressure pumps
Thin-layer chromatography
uses a solid stationary phase and a liquid mobile phase
With a gas or liquid chromatograph, the location of the peak on the X axis is measured in _____ and indicates the ____. The size of the peak indicates _______.
time; identity of the chemical; the amount of the chemical
With a mass spectrometer, the location of the peak on the X axis tells us the ______, and indicates ______. The size of the peak tells us ______.
ion size; part of the molecular structure; how common that fragment is
I have a sample of street cocaine that I believe to be cut with a variety of other materials. Which would be the appropriate test to figure out what all is in my sample?
gas chromatography
When using the gas chromatograph (GC) to determine someone’s BAC, the we must have a peak emerge at the correct _____ to demonstrate that ethanol was present, and the ______ demonstrates the amount of the drug present.
time; peak size
Narcotics
drugs that relieve pain by depressing an action in the central nervous system
Depressants
depress functions within the central nervous system
Stimulants
increase an individual’s alertness or activity level and can lead to decrease in fatigue and loss of appetite
Hallucinogens
cause changes in normal thought processes, perceptions, and moods
Schedule I drugs
high potential for abuse and have no currently accepted medical use
Schedule II drugs
high potential for abuse and have medical use but there are severe restrictions on this use
Schedule III drugs
less potential for being abused and have a currently accepted medical use
Schedule IV/V drugs
low potential for abuse and have a current medical use
Microcrystalline tests
identify specific drug substances by studying the size and shape of the crystals that form when drugs are mixed with specific reagents
Duquenois-Levine
used for marijuana, produces a purple color
Ehrlich’s
used for LSD, produces a purple color
Marquis
used for (meth)amphetamine, produces orange and red
Cobalt Thiocyanate
used for cocaine, produces blue precipitate in pink solution
Dille-Koppanyi and Zwikker
used for barbiturates, produces a purple color
A new drug from China causes you to feel super energetic and happy. It makes it unsafe to drive or operate machines like a toaster oven, and is commonly taken by young people. Doctors don’t know what to do with it. Given that inforamtion, how should this new drug be scheduled?
Schedule I
Benzodiazepines
Drugs primarily used to treat anxiety
Amphetamines
Pills (mostly) used for stimulant and happy-feeling purposes
A woman believes that she has been sexually assaulted after someone added rohypnol (a benzodiazepine) to her drink. However, she has also been prescribed Xanax for anxiety. If a blood test comes back positive for benzodiazepines, what would you believe?
It is impossible to determine with this test
Recently, most states have legalized cannabinoid consumption, so long as it does not contain more than 0.3% of the significantly psychotropic cannabinoid _______
THC
A toxicologist would be involved in the identification and quantification of which materials?
Nicotine
Fumocoumarin
Ritalin
Ricin
potent nerve poison that can be produced from the castor bean (aka castor oil) plant
The correct presumptive test for percoset (an opiate pain medication) would be
urine immunoassay
Drugs don’t appear in the urine until
after they’ve been metabolized
Formula for calculating lethal dose
(Weight * LD50)/(Pill Concentration) = # of Pills
Spectrophotometer produces what information?
Objectively defines color
Absorbance is a function of structure
Chromotagraph produces what information?
Separates a mixture of chemicals into component parts
Spectrometer produces what information?
Compares the structure of a known chemical with an unknown chemical
When do we use spectrophotometers?
Need to avoid harming evidence
Material unlikely to be a mixture
When do we use chromatography?
When evidence is a complete mixture
We need to quantify components
When do we use mass spectrometry?
When evidence is unknown
When we need to identify a specific chemical structure
Clandestine Drugs
Illegal drugs produced by groups or individuals
Examples of illicit amphetamines
Methamphetamine and MDMA
Exogenous
made outside of the body
Mathieu Orfila
father of toxicology
Steps of drug processing in the body
Absorption
Distribution
Metabolism
Elimination
Metabolites
intermediate breakdown products
Enzymes in the digestive system attack materials that are _______
swallowed
Analog drugs
Drugs that are similar but not identical to existing drugs
