To wonder what drugs are routinely looked for in post mortem toxicology screening to

[KittytheHare]

Quite niche I realise. A relative was on three types of medication for heart conditions. Died unexpectedly and post mortem has no mention of these being found on in the drug screening. Could this be because they weren’t screened for, or because they weren’t present?

Sorry, meant to disable voting

Didn't wanna leave you hanging

It depends on the exact medications involved and where the post Mortem was being performed - which country or even area of a country/state

Also depends on the circumstances around the death and whether a dr was involved in end of life care etc

It's impossible to test for ALL toxins in the world as there are literally millions possibly even billions plus there aren't tests available for some of them due to how they are metabolised and how quickly and if they are a chemical that is ordinarily naturally occurring in the body etc

So the most common ones involved in certain types of deaths/circumstances around deaths are what is tested for

Does that help at all?

I know it's very difficult when the exact manner of death isn't known we've had that happen a couple of times in my family where the circumstances weren't exactly known and there was no way to determine it. The uncertainty is awful.

I’d imagine in most sudden deaths it would be opiates that they’d be looking for to explain cause of death not known prescription drugs

i wouldn't expect routine meds to be mentioned. likewise i would expect a proper history to be put together to help understand the situation.

As long as there wasn't a risk of foul play with the medications, and cause of death was presumed to be something else, I would aaaume they wouldn't do a tic screen on expected medication- although also this isn't an area I am in anyway an expert in.

I imagine they weren't looked for as they knew they were on those drugs. They will perhaps be looking for overdose, suicide or foul play to rule them out as cause of death. I am basing this on watching detective dramas rather than any actual knowledge though!

Thanks for your input everyone