If you are applying for a certain job or planning to get government aid, you will be required to undergo a blood test. It is not a big deal to consider unless you are a drug connoisseur that preferred to lose yourself in particular psychedelic satisfaction more often. Most companies require drug testing for their employees. But, are at home drug tests as accurate as lab tests?
Even marijuana is now legal in most of the states, and you live with states where consuming marijuana is legal, positive results to a drug test may lead you to lose your own job. So, if you are planning to undergo a drug test screening and you are not sure either you will pass or not, you may end up thinking to do some home drug test first. You may purchase some test kits in drug stores or online and cost a few dollars. However, the question that pops out your mind is, how accurate are home drug test kits? Do they have the potential to save you from a load of inconvenience?
What are Home Drug Tests?
Are at-home drug tests as accurate as lab tests? At home drug test kits let you test yourself and allow you to detect the advancement of your abrupt withdrawal. These at-home tests kits are a risk examination tool that decides if your sample is clean enough to undergo laboratory testing. Moreover, undergo a laboratory test is a chance of being caught, so you are looking forward to an at-home drug test to be as accurate as a lab test as possible.
At home, drug test kits come with different testing tools such as in urine, hair, blood, and even through saliva. Tests kits are consist of a collection cup, a strip or the test tool, and the manual on how to use it. Some at-home test kits have their shipping containers for you to send your sample to a lab if you prefer to do some further testing. Usually, you’ll be required to send your sample home drug test if it comes up with a positive result. The laboratories will now give more detailed and exact results after.
Different Kinds of At home Drug Test
Are at-home drug tests as accurate as lab tests? To answer this question, you have to know that there are many different kinds of at-home drug testing kits that you can choose from. Choose the one which works appropriately for you.
You may also determine to analyze the result through your hair, saliva, and the most common is through urine. You will also need to ensure if the test kit is appropriate for the substances that you think you might be positive for.
The following are the various types of home drug test:
- Urine Test
Urine test is considered to be the most convenient, highly accurate, less intrusive, and comes with a very affordable price compared to blood tests. Aside from having a low price but very accurate, urine screening also comes with long detection reach. Urine tests can detect drug usage from up to the past three months, which is a considerably longer period compared to other test methods.
Check the facts about urine test:
- Urine at-home drug testing comes with the 2-way procedure, which consists of detection and a confirmatory test. The detection tests provide the detection of the presence of drugs with the use of immunoassay.
- Once the detection tests confirm that there is a presence of a drug in urine, the sample will be given into a confirmatory examination.
- Confirmatory tests, on the other hand, focus more on an analytical procedure to determine the concentration of drugs in the given sample. If the concentration outdoes to its cutoff period, the test will now be considered to be positive, meaning you do not pass the drug test. Moreover, if the concentration does not pass through the cutoff period, then you have been passed the test.
- Hair Testing
Hair tests can detect past drug usage and provides the longest drug detection. Like for instance, if the marijuana was used a long period, refrain from then consume again, the hair testing can show that. However, hair testing can sometimes be not resulted in accurate form because of different contaminants such as specks of dust.
Compare to urine tests, hair testing is a pricier procedure of drug testing, but it is highly accurate, hard to cheat, and it is certainly non-intrusive. Hair testing also comes with a 2-way procedure similar to a urine drug test, but in hair testing, the laboratory expert dissolves the hair and develops a sample that suits drug testing.
This test is commonly done in the laboratory as it requires multiple chemical methods. However, everyone can easily do the sample collection. You can purchase hair test kits in major pharmacies worldwide and do the tests at home.
- Saliva Testing
Saliva or oral fluid tests drug testing is considered to be the most affordable procedure for drug testing. However, this kind of test is not frequently used because it has the shortest period of time to detect drug usage.
This test is usually done in laboratories. However, there are at-home saliva drug testing kits in many trusted pharmacies. Saliva tests give a decent number of accuracy, and it can detect drug usage from 5 to 48 hours depending on substance use.
Are at Home Drug tests as Accurate as Lab Tests?
Even some at-home drug testing kits claim to be 99% accurate. There are still many different aspects that affect the result of the tests. Top-quality at-home drug test kits are highly accurate, but it has to be subjected to restriction of field testing. It can be highly accurate when it comes to providing a yes or no answer about the presence of drugs, which can still become a false positive.
The accuracy of at-home drug test kits can sometimes be affected by different reasons. It would include how you stored the tests sample, what you eat or drink before you do the test, are you correctly do the test, or even you take some over the counter medication before making the tests.
Because of such reasons, at-home drug tests cannot be considered 100% accurate. It can be accurate once you retest the result or the sample through a laboratory professional. Sometimes, it can be a false positive result because it has the presence of medication you intake. On the other hand, it can be falsely negative because of inappropriate sample storage, or you conduct the test too late.
Conclusion
To answer the question, “Are at-home drug tests as accurate as lab tests?”, at-home drug test kits can be accurate, which rely on different factors. It can sometimes be different from the laboratory analysis, and it is not a replacement for complete drug test procedures.
