Frequency of positive diazepam-screening in post-mortem examinations (author's transl)]

The post-mortem blood specimens of 389 forensic autopsies were analyzed for diazepam. The age of the cases investigated was above 10 years and the survival time was less than 12 hours. Eighteen samples corresponding to 4.6% were found to be diazepam-positive. These 18 samples were distributed equally between men and women. The proportion of diazepam-positive samples was increased in the groups of suicide and poisoning (alcohol and opiates). The association between diazepam intake and poisoning was statistically highly significant. No correlation was found between diazepam intake and age. Alcohol was found to occur significantly more often in the group of the diazepam positive cases as compared to the diazepam negative group.     

Book Reviews

Book Review in This Article:
L aw and E thics in the P ractice of P sychiatry . Edited by Charles K. Hofling, M.D.
M ale P ractice : H ow D octors M anipulate W omen . By Robert S. Mendelsohn, M.D.
N urse P ower . By Karen O'Rourke and Salley Barton     

Public interest lobbies: membership and influence

In this paper we examine empirically the determinants of membership in Common Cause and Public Citizen, two “public interest” lobbies. We find that the only variable significantly associated with membership in these organizations is number of college graduates in a state. We also examine voting by Congressmen on five issues on which one of the lobbies had taken a stand, and we find that in four cases the number of members in a state in the lobby is significantly associated with voting on the bill by Congressmen from the state, after adjusting for all economic variables. We interpret these results to indicate that participation by citizens does have some impact on the legislative process.