Info on Drug Tests

susiestar

Roll With It
I am putting this in General because I think it might be important for all of us at one time or another. If it needs to be moved, then I appreciate the mods for moving it.

I was asking some questions about drug tests when I saw my pain doctor yesterday. I mentioned that I had the hospital here thinking I was on crystal meth because I had been taking phenergan for several days and not eating.

The pain doctor said that the clinics and hospitals who do drug testing in-house have a big problem. There is a first test for substances. It has a high rate of incorrect responses. Most hospitals rely on this first test and do not do any further testing.

He and his partners use an outside company to perform drug tests. They do not rely on the first test. They also do other tests to identify what the body breaks the drugs down into and to test for CERTAIN what drugs are used. It is NOT a "quick" test. It takes time to do it properly.

It also takes staff and equipment who do a lot of drug tests to interpret results and set up machines properly for this usage.

A hospital/doctor office does not do enough of the tests to be able to give definitive answers on drug tests.

I asked him about a test my GP had done where teh nurse said I was on illegal medications because it showed a certain muscle relaxer and another one also. Just MY research showed that the other muscle relaxer is what the one I was taking breaks down into when the body processes it.

the nurse also thought that opiates and narcotics were two totally unrelated types of drugs. they could both treat pain, but if it was an opiate it was not a narcotic and vice versa.

Apparently this is what many people who do not treat chronic pain can believe. It is not uncommon at all.

Yet another reason to have any drug test done by a lab who does a LOT of drug tests each day, and interpreted by a doctor who knows what is going on and specialized in this.

I just thought it might help someone else get the right answers when drugs are an issue.
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
Wow. You have a really good point there. Every drug test husband goes thru he has to mention that he is on a prescription narcotic pain killer so when it shows up there are no surprises!

Thanks for the info. I just didn't realize how this might work.
 
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