Differences in toxicology reports and hospital emergency care for patients suspected of experiencing drug-facilitated crimes: an analysis according to gender.

Objective: To analyze gender-related differences in patient and care characteristics and in toxicology findings in suspected cases of drug facilitated crime (DFC).

Methods: Observational cross-sectional study of all patients in suspected DFC cases attended in the emergency department of Hospital Clínico San Carlos and of their blood or urine samples analyzed by the National institute of Toxicology and Forensics in Madrid between March 1, 2015, and March 1, 2023. We analyzed variables from patient records and the toxicology reports according to gender.

Optimization of a rapid method for screening drugs in blood by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry.

Objectives: In the recent years, liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry has gained popularity in laboratories. This technique has a higher specificity, detects different analytes from a single specimen, measures analytes in distinct matrices, and substantially reduce analytical interference, with respect to immunoassay. The processing and preparation of biological samples are crucial in chromatography.

An approximation to the identification of contexts, experiences, and profiles of victims of drug-facilitated sexual assaults.

This study advances on overcoming a bias limiting the forensic cases studies of drug-facilitated sexual assaults: a narrow study focus, restricted to assaults affecting young women in leisure contexts related to nightlife, party culture, and dating. A new working framework is applied to analyse data from cases received in the National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences (Madrid, Spain) over the six years between 2012 and 2017. The work throws light on non-previously described contexts, experiences, and profiles of victims, including domestic cohabitation, labour, education, healthcare, women trafficking, and the daily life of people with intellectual disabilities.