Fatal overdose of zopiclone in an elderly woman with bronchogenic carcinoma

The death of a 72-year-old woman with respiratory debilitation due to bronchogenic carcinoma is described. She overdosed herself with probably 200 to 350 mg of zopiclone. Zopiclone, quantitated by HPLC in femoral postmortem blood, was found to be 1.9 mg/L (4.8 micromol/L). This level is higher than many other zopiclone fatalities reported. We report a case where only zopiclone was detected.