Use of psychotropic drug urine test strips in opiate maintenance therapy: A clinical assessment of its advantages

BACKGROUND

Methadone and buprenorphine are the 2 opiate maintenance treatments (OMTs) available in France. According to good clinical practices, a full clinical and biological assessment is required before deciding to initiate or renew an OMT. For methadone, this assessment includes psychoactive drug consumption investigation through an initial interview completed by a systematic urine test mandatory before starting methadone treatment. In case of buprenorphine prescription, the situation is less clear and the urine test was not systematically performed. This work aims at evaluating changes in the therapeutic strategy brought by the systematic use of urine strips for detecting drug consumptions.

METHODS

During 1 month, for each case of OMT renewal, physicians belonging to the 3 types of prescribing structures in France (general medicine, specialized centers for drug addict patients, and specialized centers for drug addict patients in prison) had to complete a specific questionnaire about prescription renewal. This questionnaire contained 2 parts. The first part was completed by the physicians before the urine test strip realization. The second part was completed by the same physicians at the end of the consultation, after obtaining the results from the urine test strip. A change between parts 1 and 2 of the questionnaire concerning OMT prescription, dialogue with the patient, associated psychotropic drug prescription, and orientation were considered as a change in therapeutic strategy.

RESULTS

A total of 429 questionnaires have been collected. Among them, 315 showed at least 1 change in therapeutic strategy (73.4%).

CONCLUSIONS

This study highlighted the important benefits brought by the urine test strip in managing patients under opiate maintenance treatment. Urine test strips provided an immediate answer that allowed physicians to optimize their therapeutic strategy. However, regulatory evolutions would be necessary to ease their implantation.

On-site drugs of abuse urinary screening tests for the management of opiate-addicted patients: a survey among French general practitioners

In France, opiate-addicted patients are mainly managed by general practitioners (GPs). Because on-site abuse drugs urinary screening tests (ODUTs) are now on the market, we investigated French GPs' knowledge and practices concerning drug tests with a focus on ODUTs. We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study in ambulatory practice. Postal questionnaires were sent to a random sample of GPs in the Midi-Pyrénées area of France in December 2009. Of the 482 GPs in the sample, 116 (24.1%) regularly treated opiate- addicted patients. Only 31 of them (26.7%) used drug tests and 4 of them (3.4%) performed ODUTs in their consultation rooms. Most of the GPs did not perform ODUTs because they were unaware of whether such tests were reliable or available. Many French GPs treating opiate-addicted patients regularly did not perform ODUTs and lacked knowledge of them.