Underdetection of comorbid drug use at acute psychiatric admission

Aims and Method The ability of routine clinical practice to detect drug use at acute psychiatric admission was assessed by comparing the results of urinalysis with information on drug use extracted from patient records ( n =112). Results Urinalysis detected drug use in 23% of the sample. Cannabis was the drug most frequently found. Of the cases of drug use positively identified by urinalysis, 54% were not identified in the notes. Some information on drug use proximal to admission was found in 40% of patient records. Patients asked about proximal drug use were younger than those not asked. Clinical Implications All patients should be asked about drug use.