Essential Knowledge for the Interpretation of Urine Drug Testing Results (a clinician`s guide)

Essential Knowledge for the Interpretation of Urine Drug Testing Results. In 2017, drugs overdoses, including prescription opioids and illicit drugs claimed more than 70,000 lives in the United States. Many of the victims were patients that were prescribed opioids for their chronic pain and developed a dependence on the drugs. Urine drug testing is the best method for monitoring patient compliance with therapy, or the additional use of illicit drugs. Recent studies have revealed a need for an improvement in the ability of clinicians to interpret results of urine drug testing. The lack of a brief and practical guide to help clinicians in understanding of urine drug testing reports prompted the author to prepare this pocket guide. This guide is written after reviewing more than 40,000 urine drug testing reports to help improve the utilization of UDT for patients on chronic opioid therapy. The book covers all the scientific background necessary to interpret the results of urine drug testing reports. In addition, thirty case studies are provided to review most common scenarios that a clinician may face while interpreting urine drug testing results. Although the target audience of the book is clinicians, toxicologist, and laboratorians, laypersons can find the book useful, because it is written in a simple and easy-to-understand language. About Author: Mehran Haidari PhD, DABCC, FAACC, is certified by the American Board of Clinical Chemistry with several years of educational, research, and hands-on experience in laboratory medicine. Currently he works as a laboratory director at a clinical toxicology laboratory in Texas. Dr. Haidari received his doctoral degree in Clinical Laboratory Sciences from University of Tehran and his PhD in clinical chemistry from the Universities of Tehran and Toronto. He was trained as a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the University of Toronto.