Not Just Scotland: Quetiapine (Seroquel) & Other Drugs in Stanford

This time it is not Harvard but Stanford.

At University Diaries: A widely read blog by an English Professor in Washington D.C.
Stanford University had on its faculty…
… a profound drug addict, a liar, a man who took a plane up at night and crashed it, killing himself, because he flew with about twenty different drugs in his system. He had “a long and well-documented history of substance addiction and abuse.”

No, it is not about any drug addict. It is about a doctor who was a neurosurgeon.

Silicon Valley’s Mercury News picked up the details:
Cocktail of drugs found in Stanford doctor who died in solo plane crash
Bay Area News Group
Posted: 06/05/2009
"The Stanford neurosurgeon who died in a solo plane crash near Lake Tahoe in August had a dizzying cocktail of drugs in his system, including cocaine and Prozac, according to findings by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Doyle John Borchers III, 41, was a student pilot and not authorized for the perilous night-time flight from the Palo Alto Airport to Reno on Aug. 7, a report by the NTSB notes. His only night training came the evening before the accident, and there was no record he had ever flown farther than 50 nautical miles.
The accomplished doctor, known for his work on the neuropharmacology of addiction, had a long and well-documented history of substance addiction and abuse himself, the report adds."

In addition to cocaine and Prozac, toxicology tests by the FAA turned up opiates, mood stabilizers and Quetiapine (Seroquel). One of the drugs, buprenorphine, was among those Borchers prescribed to patients suffering from heroin addiction, according to his own online business profile.

“At the time of the accident, Borchers was in his second year as a clinical instructor at Stanford University School of Medicine. He was working alongside Dr. John Adler, inventor of a device called the CyberKnife used in the treatment of brain tumors. Adler told the Bay Area News Group in August that Borchers had come to him with an idea to use the technology to treat the neurological roots of addiction.”

Medical board probe:

“But records show that Borchers was also under investigation by the Medical Board of California and in danger of losing his medical license.”

“According to the NTSB, an April 22, 2008, accusation by the board ‘documented a history of substance dependence and abuse for more than 10 years preceding the accident, involving the misuse of at least four different substances (including alcohol) and treatment through at least six different programs for substance-related disorders during that period.’”

Six different programmes! Perhaps we should have a more realistic view on such programmes as they might be less effective than they claim to be.

List of drugs in his body: Here