A fatal case of poisoning by lormetazepam

Lormetazepam is a benzodiazepine widely used as a hypnotic for management of insomnia. It is considered to be a safe drug when not combined with alcohol or other psychoactive substances. Indeed, we could neither fi nd its toxic nor lethal concentrations in the literature. In the present article, we report a fatal case in which lormetazepam and its metabolite lorazepam were the only drugs found in body fl uids. The concentration measured in blood was more than 100 times higher than the therapeutic one. Therefore, we concluded that the death was due to the drug and that the measured levels could be regarded as lethal.