Aug 13
Parents Warned on Pitfalls of Home Drug Testing (Join Together Online)
A number of child freedom from disease experts are attempting to steer parents away from home drug testing kits towards their children and toward professional intervention if they suspect a child may have a drug use problem, U.S. News & World Report posted Aug. 6 on its online U.S. News Health section.
The American Academy of Pediatrics in 2007 issued a specification opposing any home- and school-based mix with drugs testing efforts until more research into their effectiveness is conducted. The U.S. News posting lists seven reasons why bantling health experts say drug testing should be left to professionals; atop the list are concerns that use of home tests volition delay the pursuit of professional help, and worries about the reliability of test results (both for of numerous ways for youths to cudgel the test and the possibility of untrue positives caused by other medications or poppy seeds).
“My clinical experience tells me that parents are fooled all the unoccupied time,” said Sharon Levy, M.D., a pediatrician and director of the Adolescent Substance Abuse Program at Children’s Hospital Boston. Levy said she never recommends that parents uses the tests because the results can be misleading and because their use has not been shown to deter drug-using behavior in general.
The posting states that a surge in the number of testing kits attached the market has made it difficult for parents to confront their use. But it relates the story of one family that says it at this time regrets using the tests. The parents of Indianapolis teenager David Manlove acquired a testing kit too the Internet and believed the tests were showing that their son was reducing his drug exercise. Instead, the teen had switched to other substances that the tests couldn’t detect; he eventually went into treatment but later died after using inhalants with his friends.
“If we had sought professional help earlier, I think we would have had a better chance of preventing this outcome,” said David’s father, Kim Manlove.
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