Unit Code 80372:
Barbiturate Confirmation, Urine
Useful For
Detecting drug abuse involving barbiturates such as amobarbital,
butalbital, pentobarbital, phenobarbital, and secobarbital
Clinical Information
Barbiturates represent a class of drugs that were originally introduced
as sleep inducers. Butalbital is also used to control severe headaches.
Mephobarbital and phenobarbital are frequently used to control
major motor (grand mal) seizures. These drugs are commonly abused
as "downers" to induce sleep after an amphetamine- or cocaine-induced
"high."
Reference Values
Negative
Positives are reported with a quantitative GC-MS result.
Cutoff concentrations:
IMMUNOASSAY SCREEN
<200 ng/mL
BUTALBITAL BY GC-MS
<100 ng/mL
AMOBARBITAL BY GC-MS
<100 ng/mL
PENTOBARBITAL BY GC-MS
<100 ng/mL
SECOBARBITAL BY GC-MS
<100 ng/mL
PHENOBARBITAL BY GC-MS
<100 ng/mL
Interpretation
The presence of a barbiturate in urine at >200 ng/mL indicates
use of one of these drugs.
Most of the barbiturates are fast acting; their presence indicates
use within the past 3 days.
Phenobarbital, commonly used to control epilepsy, has a very long
half-life. The presence of phenobarbital in urine indicates that the patient
has used the drug sometime within the past 30 days.
Cautions
No significant cautionary statements. This test is very specific
for these compounds.
For chain-of-custody information, see test #9426 "Chain-of-
Custody Processing."
Clinical Reference
Baselt RC, Cravey RH: Disposition of Toxic Drugs and Chemicals
In Man. 3rd Edition. Chicago, IL, Year Book Medical Publishers,
1989
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