Barbiturates are popular sedatives and hypnotics whose therapeutic usage has been discontinued since late 1960s owing to the adverse effects of barbiturates. They produce CNS depression in a dose dependent manner starting from sedation, sleep, and anesthesia and finally progressing to coma. The detection of barbiturate can be done by the barbiturate test only if the level of barbiturate in the sample is more than 300ng/ml.
Barbiturates are well absorbed from the gastrointestinal system and widely distributed in the body. They are highly lipid soluble owing to which they gain easy entry to the brain and produce depression. The termination of the action of barbiturates takes place by redistribution, metabolism in liver and excretion in urine. Barbiturate testing is based on the fact that low lipid solubility barbiturates are significantly excreted unchanged in urine. Usually they are tested in combination with a number of drugs on abuse.
Barbiturate drug screen can be done using a variety of kits. The test can be multi panel drug test, integrated test cups, and drug detection screen test card with adulteration strips. The cost effectiveness of barbiturates has made it available in the streets. The therapeutic benefits of barbiturates also can not be denied. The threshold concentration of barbiturates is 300ng/ml below which it escapes detection. The detection period is usually 2 to 4 days depending on the rate of metabolism of the drug in the body.
Barbiturate drug screening is the initial procedure in detecting the drug which is a qualitative analysis using the immunoassay and chromatographic techniques. These tests are cost effective as well as time effective. The test can be performed at the comfort of the home or office and does not require any special procedures. The drug testing kits are approved by the FDA and are available in various combinations which make it easy to detect not only barbiturates but also other drugs.
Barbiturate screen sometimes requires a preliminary check to make sure that the urine sample is not adulterated or has not been tampered. This may happen as a normal process or due to manual intentional manipulation. In such cases drug detection test screen cards comes with adulteration strips that is used to test the integrity of the urine sample. The semi quantitative screening consists of specific gravity, pH, nitrite, gluteraldehyde, oxidants/PCC and Creatinine. The presence of adulterants is indicated by color change in the strips.