Health Guidance

When you need to get some lab tests done, either for yourself or for your home, you may encounter laboratories or facilities that declare themselves to offer CLIA waived tests. They would also probably have a certificate saying that hanging on a wall. But perhaps the question you may have would be: What are CLIA waived tests?

The CLIA 1988 Law

CLIA stands for Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments. It was a set of regulations passed by the United States government in 1988. Its purpose was to set and control the standards for clinical laboratory testing on any specimen or sample derived from the human body.

The goal of CLIA is to make sure that test results done in a clinical laboratory are timely, accurate and reliable. A clinical laboratory as defined under the CLIA law is a place where tests on specimens taken from the human body are conducted for the purposes of diagnosing and treating a disease. Continue reading ‘What You Need to Know About CLIA Waived Tests’ »

Presence of Tricyclic Antidepressant (TCA) in more quantity provokes individuals to commit suicide. TCA has much impact on normal person than a depressed individual. TCA causes sleepiness, difficulty in concentration and thinking and unsteady gait in body. The Tricyclic drug test helps to find out the TCA levels in the system i.e. to fish out people who have suicidal tendency.

For whom this test is useful?
Trycyclic drug test is helpful in various situations and places in identifying the victims of the Tricyclic Antidepressant drug and helping them before anything miserable happens.

Employers:
You can make tricyclic drug test as a part of your recruitment process, which will help you in identifying candidates with high TCA levels. This test can be administered on the existing employees also to find out individuals with suicidal tendencies in your organization.

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According to the study of “Teen drug use and attitudes”, it confirms that Generation Rx has arrived, as an alarming number of today’s teenagers are more likely to have abused Rx and OTC medications than a variety of illegal drugs like Ecstasy, Cocaine, Crack and Meth.

There is dramatic increase in the teenagers who are abusing prescribed drugs. This is Drug Misuse. Drug misuse means, use of any drug (legal or illegal) for a medical or recreational purpose when other alternatives are available, practical or warranted, or when drug use endangers either the user or others with whom he or she may interact.

Nearly one in five teens (19 percent or 4.5 million) report abusing prescription medications to get high and one in 10 (10 percent or 2.4 million) report abusing cough medicine to get high.

Based on the Partnership Attitude Tracking Study (PATS) survey:

Continue reading ‘Latest Teen Drug Trends’ »

Benzodiazepines are a type of anti-anxiety drugs. While anxiety is a normal response to stressful situations, some people have unusually high levels of anxiety that can interfere with everyday life. For these people, benzodiazepines can help bring their feelings under control. Benzodiazepines act on the central nervous system, produce sedation and muscle relaxation, and lower anxiety levels. Benzodiazepines are commonly abused. Benzodiazepines abuse is partially related to the toxic effects that they produce and also to their widespread availability. Death and serious illness rarely result from benzodiazepine abuse alone. However, they are frequently taken with either alcohol or other medications. The combination of benzodiazepines and alcohol can be dangerous.

Causes and Symptoms of Benzodiazepine

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Drunk driving in America has been one of the major causes of road accidents. To minimize such tendency, the government is strict in implementing the law against driving under the influence (DUI). Violation to such law subjects the driver to penalties or imprisonment. DUI is determined if the person is proved to be drunk while driving. This is indicated by the established blood alcohol concentration (BAC) level. All states in the U.S. employ the .08 BAC minimum level. This means that if a person has .08 BAC, he is violating the law on drunk driving. But how does law enforcer figure out the BAC level of a person?

Breath Alcohol Testing Device

When a driver is suspected of drunk driving, he undergoes certain alcohol testing. Most alcohol testing is conducted by law enforcers through the use of devices. Naturally, an alcohol level can be tested by urine samples or blood samples. However, it is not practical to conduct the laboratory test when a driver is stopped by the enforcer on the road. They don’t have to go to a clinic just to get the urine or blood. What the enforcer rather have is a breath alcohol testing device where he can measure the alcohol level of the person by the breath. Continue reading ‘How Alcohol Testing Devices Work’ »

There is a wide range of drugs that are abused by the people for non-therapeutic effects and there are different testing kits that are used to detect the presence of these drugs. The drug addictive effectiveness differs from the drug ingested from person to person.

Common Drugs That Are Detected Through Drug Testing

The following are some of the common drugs that are abused by the individuals, which can be detected with different testing devices.

· Amphetamines (AMP): This is a schedule II forbidden drug used according to the prescription, which is also accessible in the illicit market. These drugs are the stimulants that affect the brain and body rapidly. These are psychologically addictive and if the addicted person stops using them will face various problems like, assault, anger and anxiety. Usually this drug effects for 24 hours and will exist in the body for 2 to 6 days.

· Barbiturates (BAR): These drugs are central nervous system depressants that are used to heal the tranquilizers, mesmerizing and anticonvulsants. Its effects are similar to that of alcohol intoxication effects. The detection period of Barbiturates is about 3-8 days. Continuous abuse of barbiturate can lead to clinically considerable level of tolerance and physical dependence.

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Drug abuse, involves the excessive and repeated use of a substance to escape reality to produce pleasure despite its destructive effects. The substances abused can be illegal drugs such as opium, cocaine, marijuana and their derivatives or legal substances used improperly, such as prescription drugs and inhalants like nail polish or gasoline.

Drug abuse by employees cause many expensive problems for businesses ranging from absenteeism, lost productivity, accidents, and an increase in the health insurance claims.

A survey by the federal government showed full-time employees who admitted to being current illicit drug users tend to be: between the ages of 18 and 25, less educated, male, divorced or never married, white and low paid employees. The industries with highest rates of illicit drug use are food preparation workers, waiters, waitresses, and bartenders, construction workers and the workers in transportation and material moving.

The loss to companies in the United States due to alcohol and drug-related abuse by employees’ totals $100 billion a year, according to the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information. There are many impacts due to drug in workplace.

Continue reading ‘Impact of Drugs in Work Place’ »

Phencyclidine (phenylcyclohexylpiperidine) commonly initialized as PCP is a disseminative drug, which means that by consuming this drug mind feels separated from the body. PCP was illegally manufactured in labs and sold out in form of tablets from 1950s. According to survey conducted by National Drug Control, more than 187 million children age 12 and older have abused PCP at least once in their past life. PCP abuse causes many negative psychological effects and due to these effects, it was never approved for human use.

Effects of PCP drug abuse
Due to the overdose of PCP, the drug abusers have unpleasant psychological effects. Their behavior will be unpredictable and often violent behavior is associated. Sometimes the abusers can even commit suicide. Under the influence of PCP, the following are the effects on health of drug abuser.

Effects on Brain: The abuse of PCP distorts perceptions of sight, sound and produces feelings of detachment from the environment and from them-selves also. These effects are caused by disruption of the interaction between nerve cells and neurotransmitter serotonin. This is distributed throughout the perceptual and regulatory system, results in changes in mood, increases the hunger and body temperature etc.

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