title: Relevance of urinalysis monitoring of methadone maintenance patients: a clinical-biological agreement on 41 patients.
abstract: Abstract This study evaluated the concordance of concomitant urinalysis and clinical assessments of drug abusers included in a methadone maintenance programme. The agreement between a clinical subjective score and an objective biological score, both measuring the evolution of illicit substance consumption over 12 months, was analysed. The clinical score, established by physicians and applied during patient interviews, was determined at entry into the programme and re-evaluated after 6 and 12 months. Forty-one patients were evaluated. The urinalysis score was based on regular screening of urine samples with the EMIT method. Agreement between the two scores was determined by using the kappa coefficient for each substance (opiates, benzodiazepines and cocaine) for each time-point. The calculated kappa coefficients showed poor agreement between the two scores, but could indicate the complementarity of these clinical and biological appraisals. Indeed, the urinalysis objectively detected change in drug use before the clinician. Thus, urinalysis monitoring should be considered as an additional and complementary biological procedure for patient follow-up by physicians.
authors.affiliation: Pharmacy, Hôpital Laënnec, 42, rue de Sèvres, 75007 Paris, France.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fellous
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lowenstein
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gourarier
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bonan
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Manuel
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dauphin
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fermanian
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Durand