Urine Drug Testing: A Patient Centered Approach

Urine drug testing (UDT) is playing an increasing role in the management of risk in clinical care. Unfortunately, drug testing in general suffers from several shortcomings, especially when called upon to identify problematic use of controlled substances, including drug diversion. UDT is the preferred tool in patient centered care. It can offer clinicians valuable insight into the identification, treatment, and monitoring of their patients while providing objective data in risk evaluation and minimization strategies necessary for responsible clinical care. Using a model of case based discussion, these issues will be examined.