Screen prevalence of drugs of abuse in patients’ urine – a retrospective study

Abstract

Background: Screening for drugs of abuse in the urine of patients presenting for drug related clinical problems has become a necessity in hospital management programs. Such ability to carry out a simple rapid test with good reliability and of low financial implication has made the request for this procedure routine. The purpose of the present study was to present the screen prevalence of drug of abuse in urine of patients seeking treatment at a tertiary mono-specialist hospital in north-west Nigeria.

Methodology: A retrospective analysis of results of drug urine testing for the years 2012 to 2015 were carried out based on the laboratory register of Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Barnawa-Kaduna. The drugs screened for were benzodiazepine, tetrahydrocannabinoid (i.e. THC – the cannabis substrate), opiate, cocaine, ketamine, barbiturate, ecstasy and phencyclidine.

Results: The mean age of the 574 patients’ results obtained was 28.51 (SD=10.30) years, majority were males (92.7%) and close to half were Muslims. Overall screen prevalence was 57.3% with majority (38.0%) screening positive for one drug of abuse. The screen prevalence of individual drug of abuse found in descending order was: benzodiazepines (36.4%), THC (27.4%), opiate (10.6%), ketamine (2.1%), cocaine (1.6%), barbiturate (1.6%) and phencyclidine (1.2%). Patients’ specific parameters with more positive results were being less than 30years in age and belonging to the male gender.

Conclusion: The present study showed that the drug urine positive test screen prevalence was high with majority of those affected being less than 30 years of age and belonging to the male gender. This calls for further study to show the relevance of routine drug urine testing based on the type of treatment being sought.

Keywords: Substance use; Psychiatric Hospital; Urine tests