Concordance between self-report and urine drug screen data in adolescent opioid dependent clinical trial participants.

Using self-report to gather information about drug use can be reasonably reliable and valid in certain situations, especially where there are no contingencies for reported use, and where certain measures are taken during the information gathering process. However, there are some contexts which make the self-report data less useful, due to inaccuracies. The purpose of this study was to explore overall concordance between urine drug screen results and self-report in an adolescent and young adult population by doing secondary analyses of a randomized controlled trial of a 12-week suboxone treatment versus a 14-day suboxone detoxification in opioid addicted youth ages 15-21 (protocol CTN-0010).

Results found strong relationships between self-report and urine drug screens for most substances. With respect to opioid use, participants in the 12-week group had concordance rates similar to participants in the detox group, but self-report was less sensitive and more specific in the 12-week group. In general these findings support the validity of self-report under similar conditions.

Related protocols: CTN-0010