DrugTestStrips Articles

The most important way for drugs out of our body is through the renal excretory mechanism. The drugs that are taken orally for systemic absorption and action undergo metabolism in liver or kidney and excreted mainly via urine. This forms the basis of urine drug testing methods in most of the 10 drug test panel, nida 12 panel drug test, drug test 5 panel nondot and several other drug multi panel screen test that are available in online drug testing companies.

If you are using any drugs of abuse as per the SAMHSA, then there are a lot of possibilities of you getting exposed by the urine drug testing. It has been found that people who are involved in drug abuse have lesser productivity compared to their counterparts and are more liable to suffer from addiction problems, anxiety, lack of concentration, depression and so on. Though the above listed problems are long term, yet there is a more potential short term problem- hang over.

So the employees are keen in taking only those people who are not addicted to any of these drugs of abuse. Urine drug testing serves this purpose. It can detect drugs in urine even after the drug has lost its effect on higher centers. If you happen to take heroin a day before interview and have got over the hang over, then there are still chances of you being exposed in the interview. Urine would still contain the metabolites.

Employees use urine drug testing in two ways, either testing people before interview or in their workplace. The entire process of urine drug testing is very simple and time saving. It just needs few minutes to give sensitive results.

A bit of moral sensitivity can help people abstain from drug abuse; however, it requires a lot of counseling and help to have on realize the pinch of the effects of drug abuse and a lot of training to say no to drugs.

Amphetamine is a psychotomimetic drug that stimulates the central nervous system. It is commonly used to treat Attention-deficit hyperactive disorder and narcolepsy. The drug has the effects of psycho dependence and cause addiction with long-term use. Some of the street names of the drug are ups, wake-ups, bennies, pep pills, etc. amphetamine urine drug screen is commonly used as a primary testing method for amphetamines.

Abusive properties of amphetamine:

Amphetamine is a strong CNS stimulant that blocks the uptake of dopamine, stimulates the release of monoamines and produces effects of euphoria, accelerated respiration, feelings of pleasure, strength, motivation, decrease appetite, and increased wakefulness.

The effects of amphetamine is similar to that of cocaine, but the effect of amphetamine can last for longer hours when compared to cocaine effects which lasts only for less than an hour. The drug can be taken orally, intra-nasally when it is in powder form, intravenously when dissolved in water, and also can be smoked.

Short-term effects of amphetamine include dry mouth, dilated pupils, suppressed appetite, irregular or increased heart rate, increased respiration, increased talkativeness, enhanced power and strength, paranoia, cardiovascular failures, nausea, palpitations, etc.

When the drug is taken in its high doses than prescribed and the usage of it for a long term will have effects such as difficulty breathing, arrhythmias, ulcers, severe psychosis such as schizophrenia, behavioral disorders, skin disorders, seizures, coma, and even death.

Symptoms of withdrawal of amphetamine are excessive sleeping, anxiety, depression, agitation, and tiredness. The withdrawal symptoms are usually treated with placebo agents. The drugs amineptine and mirtazapine are also used to control the withdrawal symptoms, but they have their own limitations.

Drug testing for amphetamine can be done as a single panel test or it can be done as a part of four panel drug test, 10 panel drug screen or as one of the multiple panel tests.

Medical properties of amphetamine:

Initial use of the amphetamine was as inhalers to relieve nasal congestions, asthma, etc. A research has also showed that the drug can be used to treat migraine, muscular rigidity and spasm, dysmenorrhea, and hypotension. The most common use of the drug is to treat Attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD), narcolepsy, obesity, and Parkinson’s disease.

There are primarily five types of drug testing methods. They are:

1. Urine Drug Testing: The main advantage of this test is that it is less expensive. This urine drug testing kit can be used even at home. This is a very effective method in case of longer and regular usage of drugs. The disadvantage of this method is that it cannot be used to check the current use of drugs and that there are lot of possibilities that the samples may be substituted or altered. Care should be taken while collecting the sample. In other words, it should be done under supervision.
2. Saliva drug testing: The saliva drug testing kit can be used easily to collect the sample and is also non-intrusive. These are less costly than blood tests. This is considered to be the best method to detect the current drug usage. This can be used to detect about 8 different drugs.
3. Hair test: The main advantage is that this test has a longer-detection window (up to 90 days). These are mostly preferred for their less chances of adulteration. Around 6 varieties of drugs can be detected using this test. This, of course, is not a suitable method for detecting current usage of drug.
4. Sweat drug test: Sweat drug test kit is very user friendly and can be collected easily. This is a bit costly than other tests, but the results are more accurate. The drug detection window is approximately 2 weeks. The main drawback in this test is that only limited types of drugs can be detected.

Most of the panel tests are preliminary tests and are meant to test for just one or more types of drugs. In cases where the preliminary tests show positive, then the samples are sent across for advanced testing.

The 10 panel drug screen indulge in the rapid detection of 9- tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid(THC/ marijuana), cocaine and its metabolite, benzoylecgonine, PCP (Phencyclidine), Morphine and its related  metabolites derived from opium (opiates), Methamphetamines ,Methadone, Amphetamines, Barbiturates, Benzodiazepines and Tricyclic Antidepressants (TCA) in human urine which are above or below the  optimum concentrations levels established as standard minimum levels  by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the World Health Organization (WHO) and SAMHSA . This 10 panel screen aims at detecting 10 drugs at a time with the help of human urine samples and the standard cut off levels of concentrations.

The cut off levels are expressed in nanograms per milliliter solution. The cut off levels for various drug detection are as follows, D-Amphetamine 1,000 ng/ml , Barbiturates (BAR) Secobarbital, 300 ng/mL, Benzodiazepines (BZO),  Oxazepam 300 ng/mL, Cocaine (COC) Benzoylecgonine300 ng/mL, Methamphetamine (mAMP) D-Methamphetamine1,000 ng/mL, Morphine (MOP 300 or OPI 300) Morphine 300 ng/mL Methadone (MTD).  

This multi-Drug Screen Panel Test is an initial screening test for the presence of drug or drug metabolites at the time the test is performed. As the test requires the visual interpretation and to avoid false results, it is recommended that a person other than the test subject interprets test results. The test results are simple.  The urine of the subject is collected in a clean container preferably a glass container. The screen test kit has 10 absorbent wicks and it is advised not to touch or contaminate the same before use. Each wick is then is dipped in the urine sample for approximately 20-30 seconds or simple penetration and migration up the wicks take place.

The results are to be interpreted within 3 to 8 minutes as the intensity of the colour in the wick would change. For certain other technical reasons also the result is interpreted in 8 minutes. In case of a negative result, Colored lines adjacent to each target drug name and in the control (C) regions will appear. The intensity of colour near the line for the target drug may be thicker or thinner compared to the control line however any line, no matter how faint it is, this should be interpreted as a negative result.

The result development time may vary for each target drug and no result should be analyzed until 6-8 minutes have elapsed. For certain drugs, the test lines would appear within 3 minutes or less producing negative results. A very faint line on the test region would represent that the drug level is close to the cutoff level for the test.