Study results revealed tens of thousands of patients being treated with opioid therapy as testing positive for non-prescribed, powerful opioids like oymorphone, non-prescribed benzodiazepines like Xanax and illicit drugs such as cocaine and heroin.
Of more than 970,000 urine samples analyzed from patients each prescribed an opioid medication, nearly 17 percent tested positive for non-prescribed antidepressants and 14 percent contained non-prescribed benzodiazepines. In additional, almost 12 percent of the samples tested positive for non-prescribed opiates, 2 percent for non-prescribed amphetamines, 1.7 percent for cocaine and 1 percent for heroin, among other medications and drugs.
Ameritox chief medical officer Tom Smith said: "It’s important to note that while the mental health medications, like benzodiazepines and antidepressants, found in these patient samples may actually have been prescribed by another doctor, the physician prescribing the opioid therapy wasn’t made aware of these additional prescriptions.
"This is a very dangerous lack of information, which is why medication monitoring can strengthen prevention of misuse and abuse.
"Medication monitoring is an important tool to combat this epidemic of misuse and abuse," said Scott Walton, CEO of Ameritox. "Monitoring can help improve patient care and can give a clinician the knowledge needed to intervene to prevent a problem from spiraling out of control."
Titled "Value of Comprehensive Urine Drug Monitoring in Patients Prescribed Opioid Medications," this research was presented at the research poster reception on Thursday, September 10, at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas.