Reviewer: Rosemary M Caron, PhD, MPH (MGH Institute of Health Professions)
Description: Now in its twentieth year, this fifth edition of a book on forensic toxicology has extensively updated more than half of its content to reflect current knowledge about drug facilitated crimes, new analytical methods, and special topics. Compared to the fourth edition published in 2013, there are seven new chapters focused on quantitation, statistics, drug-facilitated crimes, oral fluid testing, and drugs in embalmed specimens, for example.
Purpose: The purpose is to continue to provide a reputable and comprehensive book to prepare forensic toxicology students for future professional practice, as well as to serve as a reference for laboratorians, chemists, and medical examiners. The revisions contribute to making the book a current, complete, and useful resource for both students and professionals.
Audience: This book has been classroom and field tested for 20 years. It is intended for students studying forensic toxicology for eventual practice and for laboratorians who use it as a reference in their work. Dr. Levine served as the chief toxicologist, Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, State of Maryland. Dr. Kerrigan is the chair of Forensic Science and the Director of the Institute for Forensic Research, Training, and Innovation at Sam Houston State University. They collaborated with more than 40 contributing authors on this edition.
Features: Fully half of the content is new in this edition of a well-organized, well-written textbook for students and reference for laboratorians. It is organized into four parts and 40 chapters, which are similarly organized with an abstract, key words, and introduction, before focusing on the chapter topic. Part I serves as an introduction to the field of forensic toxicology and addresses pharmacological concepts important for pain management, human performance, and forensic drug testing. Part II focuses on the methodologies important for specimen preparation, testing, and analysis. New chapters in Part II include statistics for forensic toxicology, measurement uncertainty, and derivatization to name a few. Part III addresses analytes such as opioids, alcohol, and marijuana, including novel psychoactive substances. Part IV focuses on special topics including drugs in embalmed tissues and oral fluid testing. Many chapters also present figures in color which aids in the visual presentation of relevant concepts. Each chapter includes a listing at the end for those interested in further reading. Missing is a listing of acronyms and a glossary, which would have been helpful resources. An accompanying website with student resources, such as practice quizzes or study tools, and instructor resources, such as a discussion guides or sample assessments, would further expand the utility of this book.
Assessment: This is a valuable contribution for the preparation of forensic toxicology students for future professional practice, and as a reference for laboratorians, chemists, and medical examiners. Despite the absence of additional, useful resources for users (such as an acronym listing, glossary, and accompanying website) the addition of significant new content in areas including quantitative analytical methods, statistics for forensic toxicology, and postmortem toxicology, for example, makes this book a current and useful resource for users.
