The number of drugs routinely tested by clinical laboratories changes over time. Some drugs, like PCP and propoxyphene, fall out of use and become too rare to test for routinely. However, most labs find that they have to add new drugs of abuse to their urine testing panels. Below are drugs that are now commonly assessed by many laboratories because of their abuse potential or the need to monitor compliance:
- Tramadol: A mixed opioid pain medication used to treat moderate to moderately severe pain. It has a half-life of about 6 hours.
- Buprenorphine: A partial opioid agonist that is used to treat opioid abuse disorder. It can also be used for acute and chronic pain. It has a half-life of 6–20 hours. Suboxone is a medication that contains both buprenorphine and naloxone and is commonly used to treat opiate addiction.
- Fentanyl: A synthetic opioid that is 80 to 100 times stronger than morphine. It is metabolized to norfentanyl, which is also active. Its half-life is about 4-8 hours. Because it is so potent, small doses are needed, and thus, susceptible detection methods, like mass spectroscopy, are often needed to detect it. Immunoassays for fentanyl usually have poor sensitivity.
