1979/01/01 by Per Holmgren, Lotta Nordén-Pettersson, Johan Ahlner +1 · 107 citations
Medicine · Social Sciences · #Caffeine #Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research #Coffee research and impacts #Conscience #Drug #Drug overdose #Ephedrine #Epistemology #French Urban and Social Studies #Internal medicine #Medical emergency #Medical prescription #Medicine #Over-the-counter #Pharmacology #Pharmacology and Obesity Treatment #Philosophy #Philosophy, Sociology, Political Theory #Poison control #Political science #Social Sciences and Governance #Sociology
paper · doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2003.09.019
published in Forensic Science International 139(1), 71-73 (Elsevier BV)
openalex publication_date 1979/01/01 · crossref created 2003/11/21 · crossref issued 2004/01/01 · crossref published 2004/01/01 · crossref published-print 2004/01/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · crossref deposited 2020/03/27 · openalex updated_date 2026/04/28 · crossref indexed 2026/08/06
Four cases of fatal intoxications with caffeine are described. Caffeine is widely available in beverages and in different OTC-products, in many of them in combinations with other drugs like ephedrine. Caffeine is not as harmless as one might believe. An overdose of caffeine alone, intentional or not, might be deadly. It seems to be warranted to include caffeine in the drug-screening of forensic autopsy cases. It is not motivated from a medical point of view to sell pure caffeine over the counter.