An analysis of toxic deaths, 1982 to 1985, Pima County, Arizona

Toxic deaths in Pima County, Arizona, were studied over a four-year period. The deaths were analyzed according to cause and manner of death, toxic substance, and demographic data. The age group 40 to 49 years had the highest rate of suicide from toxic substances. The accident death rate was highest for ages 20 to 29 years. Carbon monoxide was most often found to be the cause of deaths in this study. The most prevalent drugs were narcotics followed by antidepressants, cocaine, and barbiturates. Comparisons are made with similar studies.     

The influence of brain abnormalities on psychosocial development, criminal history and paraphilias in sexual murderers

The aim of this study was to investigate the number and type of brain abnormalities and their influence on psychosocial development, criminal history and paraphilias in sexual murderers. We analyzed psychiatric court reports of 166 sexual murderers and compared a group with notable signs of brain abnormalities (N = 50) with those without any signs (N = 116). Sexual murderers with brain abnormalities suffered more from early behavior problems. They were less likely to cohabitate with the victim at the time of the homicide and had more victims at the age of six years or younger. Psychiatric diagnoses revealed a higher total number of paraphilias: Transvestic fetishism and paraphilias not otherwise specified were more frequent in offenders with brain abnormalities. A binary logistic regression identified five predictors that accounted for 46.8% of the variance explaining the presence of brain abnormalities. Our results suggest the importance of a comprehensive neurological and psychological examination of this special offender group.     

Editorial

Ohne Zusammenfassung

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Editorial

     

Mixed fatal poisoning caused by taking L-methadone and chloral hydrate

A 42-year-old female drug user who was enrolled in a methadone maintenance program was found dead in her apartment. Cause of death was an intoxication with chloral hydrate and L-methadone. Trichloroethanol (TCE), the primary metabolite of chloral hydrate, was quantified by solid phase microextraction (SPME) and GC/MS in heartblood (27 micrograms/ml) and urine (338 micrograms/ml). D- and L-methadone were differentiated by chiral HPLC, which showed that only L-methadone had been taken. The quantitation of L-methadone and its metabolite EDDP was carried out by GC/MS from heartblood (1300 ng/ml and 86 ng/ml, respectively), urine (5239 ng/ml and 4960 ng/ml, respectively) and gastric contents (159 ng/ml and 122 ng/ml, respectively). The concentrations of both--trichloroethanol and methadone--were in toxic ranges.     

Brain amino acid abnormalities in liver disease--a postmortem study

In a postmortem exploratory study, we examined whether specific amino acid abnormalities associated with liver diseases in vivo may also be detected in human brain samples obtained at clinical autopsies. The branched-chain amino acids (BCAA: valine, leucine, isoleucine) were decreased in the group of patients with liver diseases compared with the control group, whereas the aromatic amino acids (AAA: phenylalanine, tyrosine) were increased. However, the ranges overlapped significantly and were not statistically different. The molar ratio BCAA/AAA was determined to be 1.92 in the collection of patients with liver diseases compared with 2.27 in the control group. In patients with liver disease, ornithine concentrations in the brain appeared significantly decreased whereas glutamine was significantly increased. No significant difference was found in the brain concentrations of proline. Amino acid analysis may contribute to the understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms of liver disease, which are discussed, and may supplement the postmortem diagnosis.     

What differentiates anal rapists from vaginal rapists?

During the daily assessment routine of the Federal Documentation Centre for Sexual Offenders, important differences between rapists who commit their offense through anal penetration and other rapists became apparent. The hypothesis following these findings assumed that these and offenders would show a more sexualized behaviour than other rapists. The following differences between these two groups could be shown: violence and hypersexual desire. And rapists show a significantly higher degree in both areas, whereas, on the other side, no difference concerning psychopathic behaviour of the offenders could be proved. The preliminary conclusions that could be drawn according to these results express that anal rapists are more sexualized and, furthermore, they have a more obsessive sex life.     

Reviews

E. H. Carr, The Russian Revolution from Lenin to Stalin, 1917–1929. London and Basingstoke: The Macmillan Press, Ltd., 1979. x + 200 pp. £6.95.

Paul Dukes, October and the World: Perspectives on the Russian Revolution. London and Basingstoke: The Macmillan Press, Ltd., 1979. viii + 224 pp. £10.00 and £4.95.

Graeme J. Gill, Peasants and Government in the Russian Revolution. (The London School of Economics and Political Science) London and Basingstoke: The Macmillan Press, Ltd., 1979. xiv + 233 pp. £12.00.

John L. H. Keep, The Debate on Soviet Power: Minutes of the All‐Russian Central Executive Committee of Soviets, Second Convocation, October 1917‐January 1918. (British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979. xiv + 465 pp. £15.00.

Robert Service, The Bolshevik Party in Revolution: A Study in Organisational Change, 1917–1923. London and Basingstoke: The Macmillan Press, Ltd., 1979. 246 pp. £12.00.

Theda Skocpol, States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia, and China. Cambridge, London, New York and Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1979. xvii + 406 pp. £19.50 and £5.50.

Marc Ferro, October 1917: a social history of the Russian Revolution. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1980. xiv + 345 pp. £13.50.

Arcadius Kahan and Blair A. Ruble (eds.), Industrial Labor in the U.S.S.R. (Pergamon policy studies), New York and Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1979. xv+ 421 pp. $9.95

Murray Yanowitch (ed.), Soviet Work Attitudes—The issue of Participation in Management, Oxford: Martin Robertson, 1979. xiv+ 133 pp. £12.00.

Nicholas Lampert, The Technical Intelligentsia and the Soviet State. A Study of Soviet Managers and Technicians 1928–1935. London and Basingstoke: The Macmillan Press Ltd, 1979. x + 191 pp. £12.00.

Neils Erik Rosenfeldt, Knowledge and Power: The Role of Stalin's Secret Chancellery in the Soviet System of Government. Copenhagen University, Institute of Slavonic Studies, no. 5. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1978. 219 pp. 80 D. kr., paper.

Ljubo Sirc, The Yugoslav Economy Under Self‐Management. London: The Macmillan Press, 1979. xx + 270 pp. Index. £15.00.

Marshall I. Goldman, The Enigma of Soviet Petroleum—Half Empty or Half Full. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1980. 214 pp. £10.95.

Jonathan P. Stern, Soviet Natural Gas Development to 1990. London: D. C. Heath, 1980. xiii + 190 pp. £13.50.

Jozef M. van Brabant, Socialist Economic Integration: Aspects of Contemporary Economic Problems in Eastern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980. xiii + 362 pp. £15.00.

David E. Albright (ed.), Africa and International Communism. London and Basingstoke: Macmillan in association with Indiana University Press, 1980. viii + 277 pp. £12.50 and £4.95.

Michael J. Deane, Strategic Defense In Soviet Strategy. Coral Gables, Fla: Advanced International Studies Institute, University of Miami, 1980. 119 pp.

David W. Paul, The Cultural Limits of Revolutionary Politics: Change and Continuity in Socialist Czechoslovakia. Boulder: East European Quarterly, 1979. x + 361 pp. $23.10.

Christian Rakovsky, Selected Writings on Opposition in the USSR, 1923–30 (edited with an introduction by Gus Fagan). London: Allison & Busby, 1980. 185 pp. £13.95 (cloth), £4.95 (paper).

Alan W. Fisher, The Crimean Tatars, Stanford, California: Hoover Institution Press, 1978. xii + 264 pp. $14.95.