Many commonly used pharmaceuticals such as antidepressants and neuroleptics as well as some illegal drugs are metabolised by the Cytochrome P450 enzyme debrisoquine 4-hydroxylase (CYP2D6). Seven to ten percent of Caucasians lack this enzyme which can lead to adverse reactions and in some cases to unexpected intoxication even with fatal outcome, upon administration of drugs in normal therapeutic doses. 236 individuals who had died due to intoxication of pharmaceuticals were genotyped for CYP2D6 and compared to a reference group of 281 blood donors. A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) method was used to identify five CYP2D6 alleles: *1 (wt), *2, *3, *4 and *6. The allele *5, a complete gene deletion, was identified by a multiplex amplification of long DNA fragments. The prevalence of the CYP2D6 PM genotype in the fatal intoxications was lower (4.7%) compared to the blood donors (8.5%). A significant decrease (p<0.005) was found in the CYP2D6*4 allele frequency among the fatal intoxications.