What is drug test?

A drug test looks for the presence of one or more illegal or prescription drugs in your urine,
blood, saliva, hair, or sweat. Urine testing is the most common type of drug screening. The drugs
most often tested for include:

 Marijuana
 Opioids, such as heroin, codeine, oxycodone, morphine, hydrocodone, and fentanyl
 Amphetamines, including methamphetamine
 Cocaine
 Steroids
 Barbiturates, such as phenobarbital and secobarbital
 Phencyclidine (PCP)

What is it Used for?

Drug screening is used to find out whether or not a person has taken a certain drug or drugs. It
may be used for:

 Employment. Employers may test you before hiring and/or after hiring to check for on-
the-job drug use.
 Sports organizations. Professional and collegiate athletes usually need to take a test for
performance-enhancing drugs or other substances.
 Legal or forensic purposes. Testing may be part of a criminal or motor vehicle accident
investigation. Drug screening may also be ordered as part of a court case.
 Monitoring opioid use. If you've been prescribed an opioid for chronic pain, your health
care provider may order a drug test to make sure you are taking the right amount of your
medicine.

What Happens during a drug test?

A drug test generally requires that you give a urine sample in a lab. You will be given
instructions to provide a "clean catch" sample. The clean catch method includes the following
steps:

1. Wash your hands

2. Clean your genital area with a cleansing pad given to you by your provider. Men
should wipe the tip of their penis. Women should open their labia and clean from
front to back.
3. Start to urinate into the toilet.
4. Move the collection container under your urine stream.
 5. Collect at least an ounce or two of urine into the container, which should have
markings to indicate the amounts.
6. Finish urinating into the toilet.
7. Return the sample container to the lab technician or health care provider.

For a blood test for drugs, you will go to a lab to provide your sample. During the test, a health
care professional will take a blood sample from a vein in your arm, using a small needle. After
the needle is inserted, a small amount of blood will be collected into a test tube or vial. You may
feel a little sting when the needle goes in or out. This usually takes less than five minutes.

Will I need to do anything to prepare for the test?

- Be sure to tell the testing provider or your health care provider if you are taking any
prescription drugs, over-the-counter medicines, or supplements because they may give
you a positive result for certain illegal drugs. Also, you should avoid foods with poppy
seeds, which can cause a positive result for opioids.

What do the results mean?

- If your results are negative, it means no drugs were found in your body, or the level of
drugs was below an established level, which differs depending on the drug. If your
results are positive, it means one or more drugs were found in your body above an
established level. However, false positives can happen. So if your first test shows that
you have drugs in your system, you will have further testing to figure out whether or not
you are actually taking a certain drug or drugs.
Activities that has an active engagement in peer
support groups that shows to be a key predictor of
recovery and sustaining for those teenagers that are
suffering with drug addiction.

1. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) - CBT strategies are based on the

theory that learning processes play a critical role in the development of problem
behaviors like drug abuse. A core element of CBT is teaching participants how to
anticipate problems and helping them develop effective coping strategies. In CBT,
adolescents explore the positive and negative consequences of using drugs. They
learn to monitor their feelings and thoughts and recognize distorted thinking patterns
and cues that trigger their substance abuse; identify and anticipate high-risk
situations; and apply an array of self-control skills, including emotional regulation
and anger management, practical problem solving, and substance refusal. CBT may
be offered in outpatient settings in either individual or group sessions.

2. Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET) - MET is a counseling

approach that helps adolescents resolve their ambivalence about engaging in
treatment and quitting their drug use. This approach, which is based on a technique
called motivational interviewing, typically includes an initial assessment of the
adolescent’s motivation to participate in treatment, followed by one to three
individual sessions in which a therapist helps the patient develop a desire to
participate in treatment by providing non-confrontational feedback. Being empathic
yet directive, the therapist discusses the need for treatment and tries to elicit self -
motivational statements from the adolescent to strengthen his or her motivation and
build a plan for change. If the adolescent resists, the therapist responds neutrally
rather than by contradicting or correcting the patient. MET, while better than no
treatment, is typically not used as a stand-alone treatment for adolescents with
substance use disorders but is used to motivate them to participate in other types of
treatment.

3. Contingency Management (CM) - Research has demonstrated the

effectiveness of treatment using immediate and tangible reinforcements for positive
behaviors to modify problem behaviors like substance abuse. This approach, known
as Contingency Management (CM), provides adolescents an opportunity to earn low-
cost incentives such as prizes or cash vouchers (for food items, movie passes, and
other personal goods) in exchange for participating in drug treatment, achieving
 important goals of treatment, and not using drugs. The goal of CM is to weaken the
influence of reinforcement derived from using drugs and to substitute it with
reinforcement derived from healthier activities and drug abstinence. For adolescents,
CM has been offered in a variety of settings, and parents can be trained to apply this
method at home. CM is typically combined either with a psychosocial treatment or a
medication (where available). Recent evidence also supports the use of Web-based
CM to help adolescents stop smoking.

4. Twelve-Step Facilitation Therapy - Twelve-Step Facilitation Therapy is

designed to increase the likelihood that an adolescent with a drug abuse problem will
become affiliated and actively involved in a 12-step program like Alcoholics
Anonymous (AA) or Narcotics Anonymous (NA). Such programs stress the
participant’s acceptance that life has become unmanageable, that abstinence from
drug use is needed, and that willpower alone cannot overcome the problem. The
benefits of 12- step participation for adults in extending the benefits of addiction
treatment appear to apply to adolescent outpatients as well, according to recent
research. Research also suggests adolescent-specific 12-step facilitation strategies
may help enhance outpatient attendance rates.

5. FAMILY-BASED APPROACHES - Family-based approaches to treating

adolescent substance abuse highlight the need to engage the family, including
parents, siblings, and sometimes peers, in the adolescent’s treatment. Involving the
family can be particularly important, as the adolescent will often be living with at
least one parent and be subject to the parent’s controls, rules, and/or supports.
Family-based approaches generally address a wide array of problems in addition to
the young person’s substance problems, including family communication and
conflict; other cooccurring behavioral, mental health, and learning disorders;
problems with school or work attendance; and peer networks. Research shows that
family-based treatments are highly efficacious; some studies even suggest they are
superior to other individual and group treatment approaches.59 Typically offered in
outpatient settings, family treatments have also been tested successfully in higher-
intensity settings such as residential and intensive outpatient programs. Below are
specific types of family-based treatments shown to be effective in treating adolescent
substance abuse.

6. Brief Strategic Family Therapy (BSFT) - BSFT is based on a family-

systems approach to treatment, in which one member’s problem behaviors are seen
to stem from unhealthy family interactions. Over the course of 12–16 sessions, the
BSFT counselor establishes a relationship with each family member, observes how
the members behave with one another, and assists the family in changing negative
interaction patterns. BSFT can be adapted to a broad range of family situations in
various settings (mental health clinics, drug abuse treatment programs, social service
 settings, families’ homes) and treatment modalities (as a primary outpatient
intervention, in combination with residential or day treatment, or as an
aftercare/continuing-care service following residential treatment).

7. Family Behavior Therapy (FBT) - FBT, which has demonstrated positive

results in both adults and adolescents, combines behavioral contracting with
contingency management to address not only substance abuse but other behavioral
problems as well. The adolescent and at least one parent participate in treatment
planning and choose specific interventions from a menu of evidence, based treatment
options. Therapists encourage family members to use behavioral strategies taught in
sessions and apply their new skills to improve the home environment. They set
behavioral goals for preventing substance use and reducing risk behaviors for
sexually transmitted diseases like HIV, which are reinforced through a contingency
management (CM) system (see description on page 24). Goals are reviewed and
rewards provided at each session.

8. Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT) - MDFT is a comprehensive

family- and community-based treatment for substance abusing adolescents and those
at high risk for behavior problems such as conduct disorder and delinquency. The
aim is to foster family competency and collaboration with other systems like school
or juvenile justice. Sessions may take place in a variety of locations, including in the
home, at a clinic, at school, at family court, or in other community locations. MDFT
has been shown to be effective even with more severe substance use disorders and
can facilitate the reintegration of substance abusing juvenile detainees into the
community.

9. Functional Family Therapy (FFT) - FFT combines a family - systems view

of family functioning (which asserts that unhealthy family interactions underlie
problem behaviors) with behavioral techniques to improve communication, problem-
solving, conflict resolution, and parenting skills. Principal treatment strategies
include (1) engaging families in the treatment process and enhancing their motivation
for change and (2) modifying family members’ behavior using CM techniques,
communication and problem solving, behavioral contracts, and other methods.

10. Multisystemic Therapy (MST) - MST is a comprehensive and intensive

family and community-based treatment that has been shown to be effective even with
adolescents whose substance abuse problems are severe and with those who engage
in delinquent and/ or violent behavior. In MST, the adolescent’s substance abuse is
viewed in terms of characteristics of the adolescent (e.g., favorable attitudes toward
drug use) and those of his or her family (e.g., poor discipline, conflict, parental drug
abuse), peers (e.g., positive attitudes toward drug use), school (e.g., dropout, poor
performance), and neighborhood (e.g., criminal subculture). The therapist may work
with the family as a whole but will also conduct sessions with just the caregivers or
the adolescent alone.