Methadone Drug Screen
Thursday, October 30th, 2008Immunoassay is the normal preliminary procedure to assess opioid users for probable methadone abuse. Methadone drug screen using immunoassays will be able to provide some useful information regarding recent drug use and it is one of the important clinical tools that can provide with results quickly. Prescribing with methadone should always be closed with methadone drug testing and periodic monitoring of levels to make sure that the patient is not abusing the drug. There are going to be a lot of objective withdrawal symptoms for methadone and it would be simply impossible for someone without enough experience to be able to sense it before things have crossed harmful levels.
Methadone strip test urine or methadone urine drug test is being used to detect probable methadone use or abuse; however, it would be better if a methadone drug test strips manufacturer be consulted and tied up with by the prescribing physician to have them supply test strips to make sure that they patient is not overdosing on methadone while they are prescribed on it for therapeutic use.
Though testing for methadone from urine samples is easy there are going to be some problems in interpreting the results. In many cases the methadone drug level in urine will be only 2 to 5% of the total dose, and the other compounds in urine will not be in the parent form of methadone rather they will be in the form of metabolic byproducts. Moreover the excretion of methadone in the urine is dependent on the pH of the urine. In cases where the urine is acidic the amount of unchanged methadone that is detectable in the sample will be more.
After someone tests positive for methadone in preliminary testing, they are assessed for levels in quantitative methods where the procedure is used to discriminate between therapeutic and abusive levels. EDDP is the primary metabolite of methadone and the level of EDDP in the urine is confirmed to decide on the methadone level in the context of evaluation for treatment of methadone levels. Moreover methadone clearance in opioid addicts is comparatively less; however, since the half-life of the drug is longer than the dosing interval saliva testing for methadone could be a better option in determining drug levels in the donor quickly.
Frequent methadone testing between dosing intervals can be a great way to making sure that the patient is working in compliance with the prescription protocol and not abusing it.
For any kind of help regarding choosing the right kind of methadone drug screen feel free to contact the help desk of www.drugteststrips.com at info@drugteststrips.com or at toll free: 1 (866) 937-8483, and the consultations are absolutely free.





