Adding urine and saliva toxicology to SBIRT for drug screening of new patients.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To determine illicit drug use among new patients in primary medical care who denied using "street drugs" during Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT). METHODS: 96 new patients who denied use of "street drugs" were tested for drugs as part of routine SBIRT screening. RESULTS: Of those tested, 14.6% of those with urine specimens and 4.1% of those with saliva specimens tested positive for illicit drugs. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Drug toxicology can detect unreported illicit drug use during SBIRT screening, with urine being superior to saliva. SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE: Drug toxicology can increase the effectiveness of SBIRT screening in primary care medical clinics.