Urine drug screening has been increasing in popularity in America for quite a few years. With concerns over narcotic diversion and misuse among patients, pain management doctors are increasingly utilizing this service to facilitate compliance and to protect their practice. Most pain clinics in Phoenix use urine drug screening too.

Along with having patients sign opiate medication agreements, urine drug screening can help keep the patient’s treatment humming along and reinforcing the physician-patient relationship.

One of the large urine drug testing labs in America recently performed a study looking at urine samples from patients ages 50 and older. What they found was very surprising. Over 28% of those samples contained a nonprescribed drug, while the drug that was being prescribed was actually not detected in approximately 32% of the samples.

Typically, when one thinks of drug monitoring in younger patients, the concern is over illegal drugs and whether or not the person is diverting the medication. However, the results shown in this research study show that order patients may also be diverting their medication and/or using illicit substances. For instance, in the 28% of samples that had a nonprescribed drug, approximately 40% of those samples contained a nonprescribed opiate, 1/3 contain a nonprescribed benzodiazepine such as Valium, 14% contained synthetic opioids and there was also some barbiturates and amphetamines.

Approximately 8% of the samples contained an illicit drug. Just over two thirds of that 8% was actually marijuana (so 5.5% of the total samples), and cocaine was found in about 23% of those samples with an illicit drug (so about 2% of the total samples). Interestingly,

This study shows older individuals also have non-prescribed addictive medications in their urine drug screens a significant percent of the time.

approximately 5% of those with the illicit substance was methamphetamine (0.4% of the total samples)  and about 2% was Herland (0.1%).

For anyone who thought that older patients do not utilize illicit substances, this study proves them wrong. In addition, it also shows that there are a percentage of older patients who die birthday medications and or are unintentionally misusing their prescribed medication. Which ever the reason, it confirms that even those over the age of 50 should probably be subjected to urine drug screening as part and parcel of an effective pain management relationship for compliance and the most effective rest.

If you are experiencing acute or chronic pain the best pain management clinic in the valley is Arizona Pain Specialists. They have multiple AZ pain clinics around the valley along with an Award-winning team of Board Certified and Fellowship trained pain management doctors and chiropractors. The pain management clinics accept most major insurances along with Medicare, Medicaid, Personal Injury, and Arizona Worker’s Compensation.

Call today for one number scheduling at 602-507-6550.