Fatal MDMA-intoxication with postmortem diagnosis of hyperthermia

Hyperthermia is one of the main symptoms of the toxic MDMA effect. In a fatal intoxication, the premortal increase in body temperature may lead to a false assessment of the time of death. The problems of drug-induced hyperthermia faced by forensic pathologists and criminal investigators are discussed on the basis of a death from the autopsy material of the Berlin Institute of Legal Medicine (CCM).