Urine drug testing concentration ranges for select benzodiazepines

Abstract

Benzodiazepines have been important drugs for the treatment of anxiety and pain since their introduction in the 1950s. Urine drug testing (UDT) is often used to help establish whether the patient is adherent to their prescribed benzodiazepine or is misusing the drug. As such, it is important for physicians to recognize drug levels that are outside expected ranges. However, to date there has been little research into “normal” urine drug ranges for patients prescribed benzodiazepines. This work is designed to present the UDT benzodiazepine results from a large patient population from 6 months of testing, specifically, alprazolam, clonazepam, diazepam, lorazepam, temazepam, and oxazepam. In an effort to make these results useful to the clinician, the raw data are emphasized rather than any mathematical transformations. The ranges from this population are presented as a tool to reduce subjectivity in determining if a patient is likely adherent to their medication or needs additional counselling.