SUBSTANCE ABUSE & WHY MONITOR?
Millions of Americans are addicted to alcohol and drugs. In order to properly treat substance abuse, it is critical to identify the addiction and make a plan of action to combat it. Effective drug monitoring is crucial to finding the right plan of care and taking the first step to rehab and preventing further disease and complications.
Medication monitoring is an objective clinical tool for health care professionals who need clear, reliable information about their patients' use or misuse of prescribed medications, non-prescribed medications or illicit substances in order to make informed clinical decisions regarding treatment.
Results can initiate a conversation about a patient's health. Benefits of medication monitoring services include:
- Provides an objective means to determine and document whether or not a patient is taking prescribed or non-prescribed medications or illicit substances.
- Helps to identify possible drug-drug interactions.
- Helps to identify possible misuse, abuse or diversion.
Websites of Interest:
- American Academy Pain Management
- American Academy of Pain Medicine
- American Pain Foundation
- American Pain Society
- American Society of Addiction Medicine
- American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians
- American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine
- International Association for the Study of Pain
- National Pain Foundation
QUANTITATIVE DRUG AND METABOLITE
RHB Laboratories exclusively uses liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) technology for three main reasons:
- It is highly sensitive, allowing for identification of individual drugs and metabolites using a minimal volume (1-2mL useable urine) of specimen.
- It is also highly specific (i.e. identifies both drug classes and specific drugs and metabolites within that class)
- Minimizes the impact of cross-reactivity found in immunoassay tests.
Specific drug and metabolite identification and quantification by LC-MS/MS from RHB Laboratories provides highly accurate information to help health care professionals make more informed decisions and identify ways to improve patient care and ensure safety.
MANY PHYSICIANS DON'T USE POINT-OF-CARE CUPS BECAUSE THEY ARE UNRELIABLE AND MISLEADING.
- Don't become a victim of preliminary findings delivered by point-of-care testing cups or bench top screens.This method provides a fast turnaround, but not the accuracy or precision of an in-depth toxicology report.
- Confirmation testing is the only reliable method that is 99.99 % accurate and checks for metabolites as well as the parent compound.
More than 24 million U.S. citizens are addicted to alcohol and or drugs. That's approximately one in every 10 Americans over the age of 12. To treat addiction and comorbidity, It all comes down to the importance of drug monitoring for patients on potentially harmful narcotics. In addition, the use of our services will discourage the usage of illicit drugs, and make the lives and practices of our physicians more efficient and effective in the process.