FAQ's for Drugs of Abuse Screening

Q. I am currently not a customer; can I order kits and start testing straight away?

A. We can ensure you are fully operational with just a couple of days notice and once we have established your requirements a representative will come to see you to ensure the service provision matches your requirements. See our contact page for details on how to get in touch.


Q. Why is laboratory drug testing favoured by so many organisations?

A. On occasions clinicians need to take decisions relating to clients treatment, and employers need to make difficult decisions involving employees following screening. In these instances, the right decision must be arrived at based on accurate results derived from testing in a controlled environment with strict quality control measures. The laboratory provides the ideal environment for quality controlled analysis enabling you to be confident in the accuracy and robustness of these procedures.


Q. Is it possible to cheat an OMT drug test?

A. Because the donor is clearly observed throughout the sample collection it would be obvious to the collector if they were attempting to cheat the test. To date there have been over 10million OMT tests carried out worldwide and there is still no known adulterant.


Q. How do I know that after collection a sample has not been tampered with or mixed up with another sample?

A. All samples are carefully labelled at collection with a unique barcode. This code corresponds with the donor details on the form. Where Chain-of-Custody is required Altrix provide kits that include tamper-evident seals. Upon arrival at the laboratory every sample is stringently examined to ensure that the tamper evident seals are still intact and that the barcodes on the sample and the form match. No donor information is available to Altrix, only barcode numbers in order to protect donor confidentiality. All of the above comply with strict Chain of Custody procedures, which ensure the sample remains legally defensible.


Q. How do I know that the sample has been collected properly?

A. All sample collectors must participate in thorough training programmes to ensure the sample is collected correctly. Also, as part of the laboratory screening process, a separate test is carried out to confirm the presence of Immunoglobulin G. This substance is present in human serous fluid and so proves that it is Oral Mucosal Transudate and not just saliva or another liquid which is being tested. Any swabs failing this test will be rejected. Other quality control tests are also carried out at each stage of the drug analysis.


Q. My client is taking co-proxamol (propoxyphene), why is the opiate test always negative?

A. The opiate test looks for opiate compounds that are in some way related to morphine and codeine. Propoxyphene, although an opiate and used in a similar way to other analgesics is significantly different to the compounds that the opiate test will detect and so will not produce a positive result.

Altrix will offer a specific screening test for propoxyphene in 2005.


Q. My client is taking Zopiclone, why is the benzodiazepine test result negative?

A. Zopiclone (Zolpidem) is a type of drug that although working in a similar way to traditional benzodiazepines such as Valium, is chemically different to reduce some of the side effects.

It is therefore not detected with Intercept^® testing. We are unlikely to be able to offer a specific screening test for this in the short term.


Q. My client is taking Subutex (supervised). Why is the test result negative?

A. Research that Altrix has carried out on the detection of Buprenorphine in Intercept^® samples has led us to conclude that an individual who is taking 8mg every 24 hours will usually have a detectable level of Buprenorphine in their sample for up to 24 hours following the last use of the drug.

Lower doses of Buprenorphine will mean a shorter period of detection and this will vary widely from person to person – please refer to Altrix Fact File 3 for more information.


Q. My client has recently been to the Dentist – Will the test result for cocaine be positive?

A. No – the local anaesthetics used in dentistry are synthetic and not the same as cocaine or crack cocaine and will not be detected by our test.