Clinical Toxicology

PacTox fully embraces its role as a member of the team managing the complex treatment of chronic or acute pain and addiction. About 50 million people suffer chronic pain and an additional 25 million suffer acute pain, which translates to $100 billion yearly in treating pain. Lost productivity is estimated to be $60 billion and the societal impacts are immeasurable.

The major drugs that are available for pain management have limitations and have a high potential for abuse or misuse. Clinical guidelines have been published to assist providers in managing the treatment of patients with chronic non-cancer pain.

One of the many concerns in pain management is the identification of patients that have aberrant drug-related behavior or a potential for same. The pain management plan may include personal and family medical histories, screening surveys and/or treatment agreements with patients. The patient information you provide is important in driving the laboratory work flow as well as the correct interpretation of the lab results.

PacTox provides clinical toxicology testing for drugs and their metabolites principally in urine, but also in blood and saliva. Qualitative and quantitative testing is performed utilizing test methods with the highest sensitivity such as Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectroscopy (GC/MS) and Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry/Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). This high complexity testing is considered a “Gold Standard” with high accuracy and low cut-off points.