Rapid and Accurate Diagnosis of Substance Abuse: A Narrative Review

Rapid and accurate diagnosis of drug abuse can have many functions which following the appropriate and rapid treatment, as well as to monitoring people during rehabilitation or counseling about withdrawing drug abuse are of the most important functions. The aim of the present study was to review recent studies in the field of rapid and accurate diagnosis of drug abuse.

In this review study, scientific databases including Science Direct, Google Scholar, Springer, Scopus, Pubmed and Iranian databases including Irandoc, Magiran, SID were used. The keywords used in searches , regardless of time limit, were substance abuse, diagnosis and drugs diagnosis and drugs. Duplicate and irrelevant items were excluded from the study after the initial screening. The content was classified based on laboratory samples. Ethical standards were observed in all stages of the research and no bias was made by the researchers in the stages of the review.

76 English and Persian articles were retrieved, of which 24 related studies were reviewed. According to the findings, the amount of substance remaining in the body and the time of the test were considered the two important principles for the rapid and accurate diagnosis of substance abuse. Urine, blood, exhaled breath, saliva, sweat, nails, and hair are biological samples that are commonly used to diagnose substance abuse in laboratories. The choice of each depends on factors such as cost, ease of sample collection, risk of fraud, type of test (immediate or laboratory), drug abuse time frame (acute or chronic),the last time of using and the use of each to diagnose of drugs and consumption have advantages and disadvantages.

No laboratory methods have been found with 100% diagnostic accuracy to detect drug abuse and various laboratory methods are always at risk of false-positive or false-negative results. However, accurate and rapid diagnosis of drug abuse in various areas of law enforcement, such as traffic police, crime detection, and forensics, is important, and studies are ongoing.