Screening in primary care settings for illicit drug use: staged systematic review for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force

Polen MR, Whitlock EP, Wisdom JP, Nygren P, Bougatsos C
Record ID 32011000586
English
Authors' objectives:

To update the 1996 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendation on screening for drug misuse in primary care. The USPSTF previously concluded there was insufficient evidence to recommend for or against routine screening for drug misuse. This report describes a staged, systematic review that assessed whether the evidence for selected critical key questions is now sufficient for the USPSTF to make a recommendation on this topic.

Authors' recommendations: Although many advances in drug misuse treatment have occurred during the past decade, the vast majority of trials have been conducted among treatment-seeking populations, and thus the relevance of outcomes from such studies is of uncertain applicability to asymptomatic primary care populations that could be screened for drug misuse. Evidence that reducing or stopping drug misuse is associated with improved health outcomes similarly derives from non-screened or treatment-seeking populations, and the generalizability of these findings to general primary care populations may be limited.
Details
Project Status: Completed
URL for project: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK33960/
Year Published: 2008
English language abstract: An English language summary is available
Publication Type: Not Assigned
Country: United States
MeSH Terms
  • Humans
  • Mass Screening
  • Primary Health Care
  • Substance Abuse Detection
Contact
Organisation Name: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Contact Address: Center for Outcomes and Evidence Technology Assessment Program, 540 Gaither Road, Rockville, MD 20850, USA. Tel: +1 301 427 1610; Fax: +1 301 427 1639;
Contact Name: martin.erlichman@ahrq.hhs.gov
Contact Email: martin.erlichman@ahrq.hhs.gov
Copyright: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
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