What is a drug test?

A drug test is a test using a biological sample such as blood or urine to detect the existence or lack of existence of a legal or illegal drug. Drug tests are ordered and carried out in many different settings with many different techniques.

Drugs include licit drugs such as alcohol and tobacco, prescription drugs and over-the-counter medicines, and of course, illicit drugs. Any single drug test can't determine the frequency or intensity of drug use and thereby can't differentiate between casual substance use and substance use disorders.

Variably, different drugs are metabolized differently in the body, hence the time frame for detecting certain drugs can be pretty specific and also highly variable from one drug to another.

The most common form of test applied for detection of drugs is through urine drug testing or UDT.

When would I need to take a drug test?

You may be tested for drugs for a number of reasons. The most common use of drug testing is in the workplace. Employers may request a drug screen for a variety of reasons. These include:

• As part of the hiring process before an applicant is hired.
• During your employment an employer may randomly or periodically require drug testing after they hire an employee.
• When drug use is suspected based on signs and symptoms observed in the workplace.
• When an employee experiences an accident or incident at work.

Another primary application of drug testing is in the diagnosis, treatment and tracking of alcohol use disorder and substance use disorder. As a monitoring tool, drug testing can establish or determine treatment adherence, monitor abstinence, and detect early relapse.

You may be required to do this testing as part of probation or while attending a court-ordered program of treatment for a substance use disorder.

In addition to the uses listed above, drug testing also is used for several other purposes:

• Medical testing and diagnostics: Individuals are tested for drug use to aid in the diagnosis of the cause of symptoms or in emergency situations when health care providers suspect an overdosing or poisoning that involves a drug.
• Legal testing: There are numerous reasons drug testing will be legally necessary, such as in the collection of prospective evidence of a crime, child abuse or endangerment cases, and to ascertain whether a person is while driving under the influence of alcohol or other substances.
• Monitoring for prescription drug misuse: If you take a prescription drug with high addiction potential and/or the potential for misuse, such as opioids for pain, your provider may ask for a drug test to monitor the amount of the drug in your system.
• Athletic testing: Professional athletes often must take a drug test to screen for drugs or other substances that are considered performance-enhancing.

What are the types of drug tests?

There are different types of drug tests depending on the biological sample used and the drugs they detect.

Types of drug tests based on samples include:

• UDT: short for urine drug testing. This is the most common type of drug test. It requires a sample of your urine pee. Urine drug tests are mostly employed to detect alcohol, amphetamines, benzodiazepines, opiates/opioids, cocaine, and marijuana (THC).
• Blood drug testing: The test is mainly used by health care providers when people are brought into health facilities as emergencies. It's also commonly applied to check alcohol, or ethanol, as it can give an exact level.
• Hair follicle drug testing: A hair sample may be indicative of substance abuse for months. Scalp hair will have a detection window of three months, whereas body hair will have a detection window of up to 12 months. The results obtained in hair testing may differ with each individual's characteristic of hair. Hair testing can detect cocaine, PCP, amphetamines, opioids, and 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA).
• Breath drug testing: This is primarily used in detecting fresh alcohol consumption. The result is referred to as a breath alcohol concentration (BrAC). Officials have been known to use it in an estimate of the blood alcohol content (BAC). However, BrAC occasionally over-estimates and under-estimates the BAC. Recent studies have highlighted the prospect of using breath testing to detect cocaine, marijuana, benzodiazepines, amphetamines, opioids, methadone, and buprenorphine.
• Sweat drug testing: This is the application of an absorbent pad on the skin, which is collected and tested over time. This test will give information on how much substance he or she consumed for the entire time that he or she wore the pad. Sweat test gives a detection window of hours to weeks.

What does a drug test detect?

When a drug is introduced to the body, the body's gastrointestinal tract absorbs it and transfers it to the rest of the body. The drug gets metabolized in the liver and other organs (broken down into smaller chemicals). Metabolic processes make the drug combine with other substances, called metabolites. Within a certain time period, the drug and/or its metabolites exit the body, primarily through urine.

A drug test detects the presence of specified drugs and/or their metabolites in some sort of biological sample, such as urine or blood.

The rate at which metabolic processes occur varies between drugs. Thus, different times apply to the drug and its metabolites that would elapse before a drug test can detect the drug.

For most drugs like amphetamines, it is the parent drug that will be detectable in urine. For most other drugs, metabolites will be detectable for a longer period than the parent drug.

One sample of urine may test for as few as one drug, but most drug tests can test for several drugs by using one sample. The drugs in a drug panel test differ with the aim of carrying out the test, but the common one used in screening people for illegal drug use checks for the existence or absence of five substances:

Other commonly tested substances include:

• Alcohol (ethanol).
• Antidepressants.
• Barbiturates.
• Benzodiazepines.
• Fentanyl.
• Heroin.
• Hydrocodone.
• Methadone.
• Methamphetamine.
• Morphine.
• Nicotine and cotinine.
• Oxycodone.

What is preparation for taking a drug test?

You should not do anything to prepare for a drug test.

Drug testing can be an unscheduled (or emergency), scheduled or administrative test. It could also be requested on the spur of the moment, for instance, to meet ongoing employment requirements.

You may be required to name medications or supplements you are taking.

What happens during a drug test?

drug testing can be done from tiny samples of your blood, hair, saliva, breath or most commonly, your pee.

For urine sample, you ll pee into a clean container that will be given to you. For some urine specimens, you may be asked to collect them under the observation of a nurse or technician for them to ensure that indeed the sample came from you.

For a blood sample, a phlebotomist will take some quantity of blood from your arm or hand through a vein

After the provider takes the sample, the latter will send it to the laboratory for analysis.

Does the test pose any risk?

Having a drug test does not have any risks to the body. However, if drugs will appear in your results, it could affect your job, your opportunity to play sports, the consequences of a court case, and other aspects of your life.

Before you take a drug test, you should know:

• What you are being tested for.
• Why you are being tested.
• How the results will be used.

If you have questions or concerns about a drug test, speak with your provider or the requesting party or agency.

How long will it take to get the result of a drug test?

The length of time it takes to get the results of a drug test differs based on the purpose of the test, such as an emergency situation or employment screening, as well as the type of test.

Urine and blood drug tests normally take a shorter time to obtain the results compared to hair drug testing.

Request the issuing body to provide the date of obtaining the results.

What kind of results do you get after a drug test?

The results of a drug test are normally positive or negative.

A positive result shows that a drug was detected at or above the reference range for that test. A negative result suggests that a drug wasn't detected or was below the threshold for a positive test result.

What do the results mean?

A drug test result was negative if any of the following occurred:

• The drugs tested were not detected in the sample.
• A very small amount of drugs were found, but not enough to be a positive test result for drugs.

A positive drug test result means that one or more drugs were found in amounts suggesting drug use or misuse. Positive tests require follow-up testing because they may be wrong (false positives). The follow-up test is usually a test that provides more accurate results.

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