The Drugs Amy Might Have Bought Pt. 3: Withdrawal

Amy Winehouse's family is now claiming that alcohol withdrawal may have led to her death, proving that speculation by asshats does not the truth make.

Below the jump: alcohol withdrawal is worse than heroin (science says so).
Before the autopsy was even conducted, police searched Amy's apartment and found nothing. No drugs, paraphernalia, or evidence that she had been using drugs prior to her passing. While it seems strange that nothing would be found at all, this coincides with reports from her family that she had finally decided to quit and had been living a much more low-key life.

Family reports lie, doctors saying that she was completely healthy less than 24 hours before death don't. In this case, both are present, and it seems that the longer we talk about this, the dumber I look.

Time to Save Face: An Alcohol and Dependence Primer

There are several ways that alcohol affects the body. Generally, the easiest explanation is that it acts as an inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain, a fancy way of saying it stops signals from being sent (better explanation here.) People who drink a lot  inhibit signals so often that their brains begin to compensate and send stronger signals in hopes that they will get through the alcohol haze.

Quitting drinking cold turkey removes the alcohol from the equation, but the brain takes longer to tune itself back down. While it seems strange, alcohol is much more dangerous than heroin with regards to withdrawal.

The mortality rate from severe alcohol withdrawal and DT historically has been as high as 20% if untreated....Opiate withdrawal is uncomfortable but usually mild in terms of derangement of vital signs. Fatalities are very rare. (from Medscape)

Alcohol withdrawal is treated with a laundry list of medications, while heroin is usually treated with buprenorphine or methadone. Giving that no drugs were recovered, the numerous reports of her sobriety, and the probability that alcohol withdrawal would have been extremely dangerous to the frail star, I should probably apologize, but I'd like to see the autopsy so we can confirm that I'm a complete fucktard.

I guess that's what I get for finding a single article and running with it. Since that report of a "source" saying she bought drugs was released, it has been contradicted every step of the way, and most media outlets have buried it. It is looking like I got this one wrong, but I hope that once this source is proven to have lied that the name is released, so we know who started the rumor mill.