title: Significantly increased detection rate of drugs of abuse in urine following the introduction of new German driving licence re-granting guidelines.
abstract: In this paper we present the first assessment of the new German driving licence re-granting medical and psychological assessment (MPA) guidelines by comparing over 3500 urine samples tested under the old MPA cut-offs to over 5000 samples tested under the new MPA cut-offs. Since the enzyme multiplied immunoassay technique (EMIT) technology used previously was not sensitive enough to screen for drugs at such low concentrations, as suggested by the new MPA guidelines, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) screening kits were used to screen for the drugs of abuse at the new MPA cut-offs. The above comparison revealed significantly increased detection rates of drug use or exposure during the rehabilitation period as follows: 1.61, 2.33, 3.33, and 7 times higher for 11-nor-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid (THC-COOH), morphine, benzoylecgonine and amphetamine respectively. The present MPA guidelines seem to be more effective to detect non-abstinence from drugs of abuse and hence to detecting drivers who do not yet fulfil the MPA requirements to regain their revoked driving licence.
authors.affiliation: Labor Krone, Siemensstr. 40, 32105 Bad Salzuflen, Germany. ragius@laborkrone.de
authors.forename: Ronald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Agius
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nadulski
authors.forename: Hans-Gerhard
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Kahl
authors.forename: Bertin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dufaux
mesh_terms: D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D053593:Forensic Toxicology / Q000592:standards; D005858:Germany; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D008004:Licensure / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000592:standards; D009294:Narcotics / Q000652:urine*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis
chemical_list: D009294:Narcotics