The Prevalence of Detectable Blood Alcohol Concentration among Unnatural Deaths in Northern Thailand
Siripun Narongchai MSc*, Paitoon Narongchai MD*
Affiliation : * Department of Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai
Background : Alcohol is the most common substance abused. It causes many kinds of injuries and death from
accidents, homicides, suicides and sudden unexplained natural death (SUND). Traffic accidents especially,
have a very close correlation with alcohol concentration levels in the body.
Materials and Methods : In the present study, there were 1,138 corpses who were sent for autopsy at Chiang Mai
University from January to December 2003, in which 78.4% of these cases suffered unnatural death.
Results : The incidence of accident was 64.7%, homicide was 22.3% and suicide was 13%. The authors used
153 corpses as a sample. In the sample, 74 (48.4%) were from traffic injuries. There was Blood Alcohol
Concentration (BAC) detected in 82 (53.6%) of them, and 99% were male. Their age range was 26-35 years
in 42.7% of cases, the employees constituted 48%, 57% were married, 52.4% had traffic injuries for a total of
54.9% who experienced accidental death. The BACs in the accident deaths were very high, with 67 (81.7%)
having blood alcohol concentrations of more than 50 mg, 58 (70.7%) with more than 100 mg% and only 15
(18.3%) with less than 50 mg%. The highest BAC detected was 396 mg% in a case that did not die of alcohol
toxicity. The most common range of BAC in these cases was 151-200 mg% in 20.7% of cases.
Conclusion : Alcohol is one of the most common associations with unnatural death in Thailand. From the
present study the authors found alcohol associated with drugs such as diazepam and chlorpheniramine etc.
Keywords : SUND, Alcohol, Accident, Homicide, Suicide, Diazepam, Chlorpheniramine
