December 4, 1998

The Food and Drug Administration has cleared for marketing a nonprescription test for commonly abused drugs. The test can be performed at home and gives preliminary results in 10 minutes.

QuickScreen at Home Drug Test, by Phamatech of San Diego, Calif., is done on urine. The test cannot determine with certainty that drugs are present; results indicating possible drug use must be sent to a laboratory for confirmation.

The test comes in two models. One tests for cocaine, marijuana, opiates, amphetamine, and phencyclidine (PCP); the other tests for cocaine, marijuana, opiates, amphetamine, and methamphetamine.

The QuickScreen kit consists of a urine collection cup and a test strip containing antibodies against specific drugs. The test strip is placed in the urine immediately after the urine is collected. After 10 minutes, results are visible as color bands on the test strip. Results are shown as either "negative" or "inconclusive-need laboratory analysis." The home test does not specify which drugs may be present in the urine. This information is available only after confirmatory testing by a laboratory establishes that the sample is positive. These results are available in three days by calling a help line.