LD-50 Information

General information

1. LD-50 (Lethal Dose - 50) means the amount of drug it took to kill 50% of the subject group, usually mice or rats.
2. Doubling the dosage does not necessarily make it 100%.
3. mg/kg means that for each kg that you weigh,  you need that dose in mg;
   for example if it were 2mg/kg and you weighed 70kg you'd need 140 mg for the LD-50. (Americans: 1 kg = 2.2 lb)
4. The LD-50 does not scale exactly, either from mice to humans or from 50% to 100%.   People vary. People take six times the "lethal dose" (not the LD-50, but a higher dose that in a treating physician's opinion usually causes death) of something and manage somehow to survive because bodies differ.
5. Human-specific LD-50 data is not available because the FDA won't let drug companies take a pool of 1200 or so humans and feed them a drug until 600 are dead.
6. Since, when trying to commit suicide, the focus is on being sure one dies rather than leaving a chance for survival, when reputable sources cite differing LD-50's, the higher LD-50 is generally supplied.
7. There is vastly differing information from various sources on Tricyclic Antidepressants (such as amitriptyline, imipramine, nortriptyline, desipramine, doxepin, protriptyline, and trimipramine).   Printed sources give fairly high LD-50's, whereas some papers available on the web give much lower ones.

Generally, drugs are an extremely uncertain method of suicide because of differing drug action in different people.  The LD-50 can be regarded as a very bare minimum; that is, below that, sure, you -could- wind up dead, but there's a damn good chance you'll wake up some hours later strapped to a gurney in the psychiatric section of a hospital emergency department.

LD-50's mentioned in posts on a.s.h or associated lists / chats:

All LD-50's above are oral unless otherwise indicated.  This is because it is usually extremely difficult to obtain a pure i.v. version of a drug.
i.v. = intravenous (injected into a vein); s.c. = subcutaneous (injected below the skin); i.p. = interperitoneal (injected into the peritoneum).

HCL = Hydrochloride

Poison Information Links

Detailed psychiatric drug information, including links to research studies, are available at a site called Internet Mental Health.

Links to Government/University Poison Information Sites:

Last update: Monday, January 14, 2002 23:17

	"The problem with researching methods via medical information is that medical information is intended to let you know what is the least amount of a drug or chemical that can cause harm. This is a far cry from our needs, which is to discover the amount that will definitely cause death." -soontobedeadchick