What do these tests do? These tests indicate if one or more prescription or illegal drugs are present in urine. These tests detect the presence of drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, opiates, methamphetamine, amphetamines, PCP, benzodiazepine, barbiturates, methadone, tricyclic antidepressants, ecstasy, and oxycodone.
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The testing is done in two steps. First, you do a quick at-home test. Second, if the test suggests that drugs may be present, you send the sample to a laboratory for additional testing.
What are drugs of abuse? Drugs of abuse are illegal or prescription medicines (for example, Oxycodone or Valium) that are taken for a non-medical purpose. Non-medical purposes for a prescription drug include taking the medication for longer than your doctor prescribed it for or for a purpose other than what the doctor prescribed it for. Medications are not drugs of abuse if they are taken according to your doctor&#;s instructions.
What type of test are these? They are qualitative tests -- you find out if a particular drug may be in the urine, but not how much is present.
When should you do these tests? You should use these tests when you think someone might be abusing prescription or illegal drugs. If you are worried about a specific drug, make sure to check the label to confirm that this test is designed to detect the drug you are looking for.
How accurate are these tests? The at-home testing part of this test is fairly sensitive to the presence of drugs in the urine. This means that if drugs are present, you will usually get a preliminary (or presumptive) positive test result. If you get a preliminary positive result, you should send the urine sample to the laboratory for a second test.
It is very important to send the urine sample to the laboratory to confirm a positive at-home result because certain foods, food supplements, beverages, or medicines can affect the results of at-home tests. Laboratory tests are the most reliable way to confirm drugs of abuse.
Many things can affect the accuracy of these tests, including (but not limited to):
Note that a result showing the presence of an amphetamine should be considered carefully, even when this result is confirmed in the laboratory testing. Some over-the-counter medications will produce the same test results as illegally-abused amphetamines.
Does a positive test mean that you found drugs of abuse? No. Take no serious actions until you get the laboratory's result. Remember that many factors may cause a false positive result in the home test.
Remember that a positive test for a prescription drug does not mean that a person is abusing the drug, because there is no way for the test to indicate acceptable levels compared to abusive levels of prescribed drugs.
If the test results are negative, can you be sure that the person you tested did not abuse drugs? No. No drug test of this type is 100% accurate. There are several factors that can make the test results negative even though the person is abusing drugs. First, you may have tested for the wrong drugs. Or, you may not have tested the urine when it contained drugs. It takes time for drugs to appear in the urine after a person takes them, and they do not stay in the urine indefinitely; you may have collected the urine too late or too soon. It is also possible that the chemicals in the test went bad because they were stored incorrectly or they passed their expiration date.
If you get a negative test result, but still suspect that someone is abusing drugs, you can test again at a later time. Talk to your doctor if you need more help deciding what steps to take next.
How soon after a person takes drugs, will they show up in a drug test? And how long after a person takes drugs, will they continue to show up in a drug test? The drug clearance rate tells how soon a person may have a positive test after taking a particular drug. It also tells how long the person may continue to test positive after the last time he or she took the drug. Clearance rates for common drugs of abuse are given below. These are only guidelines, however, and the times can vary significantly from these estimates based on how long the person has been taking the drug, the amount of drug they use, or the person's metabolism.
DrugHow soon after taking drug will there be a positive drug test?How long after taking drug will there continue to be a positive drug test?Marijuana/Pot1-3 hours1-7 daysCrack (Cocaine)2-6 hours2-3 daysHeroin (Opiates)2-6 hours1-3 daysSpeed/UppersHow do you do a drugs of abuse test?
These tests usually contain a sample collection cup, the drug test (it may be test strips, a test card, a test cassette, or other method for testing the urine), and an instruction leaflet or booklet. It is very important that the person doing the test reads and understands the instructions first, before even collecting the sample. This is important because with most test kits, the result must be visually read within a certain number of minutes after the test is started.
You collect urine in the sample collection cup and test it according to the instructions. If the test indicates the preliminary presence of one or more drugs, the sample should be sent to a laboratory where a more specific chemical test will be used order to obtain a final result. Some home use kits have a shipping container and pre-addressed mailer in them. If you have questions about using these tests, or the results that you are getting, you should contact your healthcare provider.
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&#;Employers want a safe and healthy workforce, and so two-thirds of them test workers for drug use, according to recent research&#;but which method of testing is most effective?
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There are currently three primary methods of specimen collection:
The vast majority of employers use urine testing over saliva or hair, primarily because "it's what people have always done," said Matthew Nieman, an attorney in the Washington, D.C., regional office of law firm Jackson Lewis. The typical organization looks to the Department of Transportation (DOT), which tests truck drivers and airplane pilots, and because it still uses urine testing, it's the de facto industry standard, Nieman explained.
The DOT is reportedly on the cusp of adding saliva as the second approved specimen for federal testing, in a rule due sometime this year, according to experts.
Dr. Todd Simo, HireRight's chief medical officer, noted that alternate specimens are gaining interest, especially since urine tests aren't as accurate.
"Both hair and oral fluid testing have had double-digit yearly growth as more companies become aware [of them]. And both hair and oral have substantially higher positive hit rates."
When comparing the number of people who self-report drug use to the National Institute of Drug Addiction and the number of positive test results from Quest Diagnostics nationwide lab, Simo said, urine screens don't detect as many drug users as would be expected.
But he pointed out that urine and hair testing pick up many different drugs, such as prescription medications, which get overturned when reviewed by a medical professional, while oral testing panels are typically screening only for marijuana, cocaine, PCP, amphetamines and opioids. Medical review&#;which determines whether a legitimate medical explanation can account for positive results reported by the lab&#;is an important piece of any workplace drug-testing program.
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Urine testing. Urinalysis is currently the only approved drug-testing method for workplaces covered by federal guidelines. It's easy to collect the specimen, which can be screened for many illicit drugs as well as prescription medication, said David Bell, the CEO of USA Mobile Drug Testing, a drug-testing provider in Tampa, Fla.
On the other hand, people have figured out how to cheat on the test, Simo said. "Urine as a specimen is very easily manipulated. There are literally hundreds of websites out there that sell adulterants and synthetic urine for people to buy that can subvert a urine drug testing program."
But cheating may not be that easy. Bell said that while employers typically don't observe workers while the specimen is collected, increasing the risk of tampering, "a urine screen is difficult to cheat as the temperature, pH and creatinine is checked to ensure specimen integrity. Attempts to dilute a urine specimen will only create a specimen that is inconclusive and requires a retest."
Saliva testing. Oral fluid testing can be collected immediately onsite, which makes it more efficient and reduces the amount of time and cost for collection, Bell said. "The test can detect use that has been extremely recent where urine tests require the drugs to have passed through your system to identify."
Saliva testing has a lot of appeal, Nieman agreed, "especially for employers who want to do it themselves. Testers can get FDA-approved onsite swab tests, observe the specimen collection&#;making it hard to subvert&#;and send it off to the lab for confirmation. However, some states and localities limit or prohibit onsite testing, so employers need to be aware of the laws that apply to them."
Because of the small detection window&#;from a few minutes up to about 48 hours&#;oral tests are likely catching chronic daily users, Simo said. "These are the people you want to deter and keep off your job site because they represent the most imminent risk."
But the limited detection window is also its drawback. "It can only detect drug use that as happened within the past couple of days," Bell said.
Hair testing. Drug-testing hair is a simple and noninvasive way to detect drug use over a greater length of time, most effective when testing for regular use of drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamines and opiates. These drugs can become undetectable in urine after three to four days.
"Hair testing has the highest 'fear factor' as a deterrent," Simo said. "Employers that advertise hair testing deter drug-using applicants that just stay away. It's impossible for regular users to prepare for it."
On the other hand, it typically does not do a good job at detecting sporadic usage, he said.
And "it doesn't really cover the few days right before the test, because it takes time for hair to grow," Nieman said.
Specimen collection is dependent on each organization's drug-testing needs. "The best option is what you're comfortable with," Nieman said. "If you're a small employer and comfortable with being trained on how to conduct onsite saliva testing, go for it. If you are already contracting with a lab for urine testing, you don't have to reinvent the wheel."
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