Diminished Consciousness in a Woman Following an Unsuspected Scopolamine Overdose

Abstract

Scopolamine is used clinically, but it is also used as a recreational drug and as an incapacitating drug, in sexual crimes and robberies. In this paper, the authors report the case of a woman with a diminished consciousness following an unsuspected overdose with scopolamine and review published articles on scopolamine poisoning that included concentrations in biological samples. Scopolamine was identified in the patient's serum and urine samples collected 1 h post-admission to intensive care unit at concentrations of 8.4 ng/mL and 62,560 ng/mL (169,539 ng/mg creatinine), respectively. In non-fatal cases, the median [interquartile range] of serum scopolamine levels was 1.9 [2.1] ng/mL. The serum concentration found in our case would explain the abrupt clinical presentation suffered by the patient. Scopolamine in urine could be detected up to 48 h after admission. This report illustrates that broad toxicology screening, including scopolamine, should be considered when patients with diminished consciousness are attended after ruling out infection or cerebrovascular disease. This can play an important role in identifying this potentially life-threatening etiology.