Monitoring patterns of substance use in drug-dependent patients.
Drug-addicted patients (N = 435) admitted for treatment in different clinical settings were studied. Patients were classified according to their self-report of consumed drugs and to the results of urine screening tests. Of the patients, 77.8% were active consumers, 9.6% were included in a methadone maintenance program, and 12.6% were abstinent. In the active consumer patients, positive urine screening results surpassed by far the information provided in the self-reports. Most patients tested positive to several drugs, while only 8.7% tested negative to all screened drugs. These results indicate that the information provided by drug-dependent patients lacks reliability when an analytical screening method is used simultaneously.
San
L
L
Department of Psychiatry and Drug Dependence, Hospital del Mar, Barcelona, Spain.
Torrens
M
M
Tato
J
J
Castillo
C
C
de la Torre
R
R
Arranz
B
B
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006556:Heroin Dependence / Q000523:psychology / Q000652:urine; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008691:Methadone / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008875:Middle Aged; D009294:Narcotics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation / Q000652:urine
D009294:Narcotics; D008691:Methadone