• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.191-198
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• 1992

The abuse of zipeprol, an antitussive agent, is prevalent among young people. Ten fatal cases of zipeprol concentration in blood after its abuse had caused death are disscussed. GC equipped with TSD was used to quantify the drug in postmortem blood and GC/MS to identify the metabolites in urine after preliminary test. The calibration curve of zipeprol was linear (r = 0.998) and the recoveries of zipeprol 5, 10 and $20\;{\mu}g$ added to 1 ml postmortem blood were $97.2{\pm}3.9$, $92.5{\pm}3.9$ and $86.9{\pm}4.6%$ respectively. The blood zipeprol concentration varied 2.9 to $24.69\;{\mu}g/ml$ in 10 fatal cases. All the deaths were young adults with the age of 16-21. Three metabolites were identified in drug abuser's urine, 2-methoxy-2-phenyl ethylpiperazine, 2-hydroxy-3-methoxy-3-phenyl propylpiperazine and a demethylated zipeprol.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.286-290
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• 1998

The abuse of zipeprol, an antitussive agent, was found to be most prevalent among young people in Korea. Because abusers take large doses of this drug for its hallucinogenic effects, fatalities from zipeprol overdose abuse have been on the rise since 1991. Since 1991, a total of 69 zipeprol-related deaths have occurred throughout the nation. A demographic study shows that in ninety six percent of cases involving zipeprol alone, the victims were in their teens and twenties. The mate/female ratio in zipeprol related death was 3.5:1. Most of these zipeprol-associated deaths occurred in the larger cities of Seoul and Inchon. The blood concentration of zipeprol ranged from 0.8 to $38.3{\mu}g/mL $in single drug involved deaths, while zipeprol varied from to 35.3 $0.1{\mu}g/mL $in zipeprol and dextromethorphan victims.