Use of the urine drug screen in psychiatry emergency service 2.

Abstract

The authors also need to consider multiple studies which have shown routine testing including UDS is of very low yield and is unnecessary in psychiatry emergency departments.3–7 A more recent systematic review by Dupouy and colleagues in 2014 revealed that there is weak evidence supporting routine use of UDS in emergency setting because it added no value to management decisions.8 Akosile and McDermott have not advocated for no-testing in non-emergency settings given that the scope of our study was restricted to emergency settings.1 We feel the conclusion of our study needs reiteration; even if the information of drug use and abuse was collected this was not reflected in the individual’s subsequent management plan as also demonstrated by Dupouy and colleagues.8 A possible future direction is to investigate the use of UDS in nonemergency psychiatry settings and its influence on management in both settings.