Toxicology

Do you ever... 

 

• Refer to another practice for controlled substances? 

• Question your patients’ compliance to your prescription regimen?

• Question patients’ use of prescription medications in addition to those you have prescribed? 

• Question patients’ use of illegal drugs in addition to the medication you have prescribed? 

• Worry medication is being sold illegally from prescriptions you have written?

 

 

Alarming Facts Nearly 7 million Americans are abusing prescription drugs - more than the number who are abusing cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, ecstasy and inhalants combined. That 7 million was just 3.8 million in 2000, an 80 percent increase in just 10 years. (US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)) More than 41,000 fatal overdoses  mostly caused by prescription drugs each year. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.) Fatal poisonings From 1999 through 2006, the number of fatal poisonings involving opioid analgesics more than tripled from 4,000 to 13,800 deaths. (Margaret Warner, Ph.D.; Li Hui Chen, M.S., Ph.D.; and Diane M. Makuc, Dr. P.H.)

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Why Test or Monitor? Get Abusers Out of Your Practice: 

 

Patients who use drugs of abuse are more likely to abuse pain medications, to divert medication for financial gain or to fund an addiction to legal or illegal drugs. Avoid Dangerous Cocktails: Patients who use drugs of abuse are at higher risk of combining such use with legal drugs you prescribe, putting them at risk for overdoses and accidents. Establish a Baseline: Customize a protocol for patient compliance. Compliance: Satisfy Patient/Physician compliance standards as set forth by the DEA.