Monday, January 23, 2012

What are False Positive and False Negative Drug Test Results

With the increased use of drug users, conducting drug tests became mandatory in many fields. The results related to the test conducted help the organization to move ahead with the further procedures like recruitment and admissions. However, specimen adulteration and consumption of prescription drugs may sometimes result either in false negatives and false positives, hence it is always better to confirm the tests again with a laboratory test. For now let us know what are false positive and false negative results.

False positive drug tests: False positive drug tests are nothing but the drug test resulting positive, even in the abstinence of drugs. This means that even if the person has not abused the drugs he will be tested positive. This is due to the intake of some over-the-counter drugs or prescription medications which contain small quantities of drug metabolites and hence the people who consume such kind of medicines prior to drug test will test positive. These kind of results are called as false positive tests. Moreover, no one can say whether the test is really positive or a false positive until it is confirmed in the laboratory for further testing. Some of the things which can result is false positives are asthma medications, prescription medicines like Amfepramone, Cathne, Etafediabe, Morazone, phendimetrazine, etc. Other substances like poppy seeds , cough syrups may also result in false positives.

False negatives drug tests: False negatives are nothing but showing the wrong results. That is even though the person who is going to be tested has abused drugs the result will show negative making the result false. Unlike false positives, false negatives are more intentional and the person who is being tested knows whether the result is really negative or false negative. Specimen adulteration and consuming the products which detoxifies could result in false negatives.

Hence, every tests need to be confirmed with a laboratory drug test.

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