Estimation of Drug and Ethanol Abuse Prevalence in the Hualien Area

Abstract

The prevalence rates of amphetamine, opiate and barbiturate abuse were estimated by screening urine samples of police detainees in the Hualien area. The drugs of abuse were determined with Syva Emit d.a.u. reagents. Amphetamines and opites were found to be present in 84% and 12% of the samples, restectively. There were 7.8% of the samples that screened positive for both amphetamines and opiates. There were no samples that screened positive for barbiturates. The presence of amphetamines and ethanol were determined in urine samples from another group of police detainees. The presence of ethanol was determined using an enzymatic method. The positive rates for amphetamines and ethanol were 71% and 10%, respectively. There were 4.7% of samples that screened positive for both amphetamines and ethanol. Amphetamine abuse had a positive correlation to ethanol abuse, according to the Chi square test (X的2次方=15.59, P＜0.01). A small percentage of the urine samples (0.6%)from the outpatients at Tzu Chi Buddhist General Hospital screened positive for amphetamines with the SYva Emit d.a.u. class and monoclonal amphetamine reagents. The syva reagents can be adapted to either a Hitachi 747(an automated clinical chemistry andlyzer) or a manual method. The precision (% CV) of the automated Hitachi method (0.34% and 0.37%) was better than the manual microplate method (2.35% and 1.18%) for the negative control and cutoff calibrator, respectively.