Two Fatalities Involving Haloperidol

Abstract

Two cases are presented in which haloperidol was identified in postmortem toxicological analysis. One case was a suicidal overdose of the drug; the blood concentrations of haloperidol and reduced haloperidol were 1.9 and 1.4 mg/L, respectively. Bile, liver, and urine concentrations were 3.4 mg/L, 44 mg/Kg and 6.6 mg/L for haloperidol and 1.6 mg/L, 43 mg/Kg, and 5.7 mg/L for reduced haloperidol, respectively. The second case was believed to be a natural cardiac death with a blood haloperidol concentration of 0.6 mg/L. The distribution of haloperidol and reduced haloperidol in this case was bile, 0.4 and 0.5 mg/L; kidney, 0.7 and 2.3 mg/Kg; liver, 5.0 and 13 mg/Kg; and urine, 0.4 and 2.3 mg/L.