Distribution of thioridazine and its metabolites in human tissues and fluids obtained postmortem

Thioridazine and metabolites were measured in brain, liver, and kidney specimens, obtained postmortem from two subjects whose deaths were related to acute intoxication with thioridazine, by gas-liquid chromatography. Although the absolute concentration measured for thioridazine and metabolites differed in the two cases, the metabolic pattern for each tissue, expressed in terms of the percentage of total drug in each tissue, was quite similar. The brain, liver, and kidney metabolic patterns, however, are in sharp contrast to the plasma metabolite patterns observed for subjects on a therapeutic regimen of thioridazine. As this example demonstrates, postmortem specimens are a valuable (but seldom used) source of human pharmacological data.