A drug test uses a biological sample (such as blood or urine) to detect the presence or absence of a legal or illegal drug. Drug tests are ordered and performed in a variety of settings with a variety of techniques.
If you are looking for more details, kindly visit Accu-Tell.
Advertisement
Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center. Advertising on our site helps support our mission. We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services. Policy
Drugs include legal substances such as alcohol and tobacco, as well as over-the-counter medications, prescription medications and illegal substances. A single drug test can’t determine the frequency and intensity of substance use and, thus, can’t distinguish casual substance use from substance use disorders.
Your body metabolizes (breaks down) various drugs at different rates, so the timeframe for detecting certain drugs in your system can be very specific and vary widely from substance to substance.
Urine drug testing (UDT) is the most common test for detecting drugs.
You may need a drug test for several reasons. The most common use of drug testing is in the workplace. Employers may require a drug screening for various reasons, including:
Another common use of drug testing is for the diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of alcohol use disorder and substance use disorder. As a tool for monitoring, drug testing can help determine treatment adherence, monitor abstinence and detect early relapse.
Advertisement
You may need this testing for court-ordered treatment programs, as a term of probation or while participating in a substance use disorder treatment program.
Other uses for drug testing include:
There are several kinds of drug tests based on the biological sample they use and the types of drugs they detect.
Different types of drug tests based on the sample used include:
Advertisement
When a drug enters your body, your gastrointestinal tract absorbs and distributes it to the rest of your body. Your liver and other organs metabolize the drug (break it down). Metabolic processes cause the drug to turn into different chemicals, called metabolites. After a certain amount of time, the drug and/or its metabolites leave your body, mainly through your urine.
A drug test screens for certain drugs and/or their metabolites in a biological sample (such as urine or blood).
The metabolic processes happen at different speeds for different drugs. Because of this, each drug and its metabolites have a different timeframe in which a drug test can detect them.
For some drugs like amphetamines, the main (parent) drug will be detected in urine. For most other drugs, metabolites will be detectable for a longer time than the main drug.
A drug test may look for only one drug, but most drug tests often test for multiple drugs with one sample. Although the drugs included in a drug panel test vary based on the reason for the test, the most common panel used to evaluate people for illegal drug use detects the presence or absence of five substances:
Other commonly tested substances include:
Advertisement
Yes. Some kits can test urine samples in the privacy of your own home. Some kits may use breath, saliva or hair instead. The accuracy of these products is variable. They generally are less sensitive than the formal tests done in a laboratory. This means that a home test could be negative, but a laboratory test could be positive with the same sample.
The American Academy of Pediatrics cautions parents against drug testing their children at home. Research studies have shown that at-home testing doesn’t reduce drug use. At-home testing also comes with the potential for misinterpreting results, which may negatively affect the relationship between children and parents.
There’s nothing you need to do to prepare for a drug test.
Drug testing can be an emergency test, a scheduled test or it may be conducted randomly (for example, to meet ongoing employment requirements).
If you want to learn more, please visit our website Drug Of Abuse Tests.
Depending on the circumstances, you may be asked to identify medications or supplements you’re taking.
Drug testing can be performed from small samples of your blood, hair, saliva, breath or, most commonly, your urine (pee).
Advertisement
For a urine sample, you’ll pee into a clean container provided to you. In some instances, you may need to provide your urine sample in the presence of a nurse or technician to make sure that the sample did indeed come from you.
For a blood sample, a phlebotomist will draw a small amount of blood from a vein in your arm or hand.
After the provider has collected the sample, they’ll send it to a laboratory for analysis
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.
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.
How 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.
Useful Links:
Want more information on HAV Rapid Test? Feel free to contact us.