Drugs of Abuse Laboratory at King's College Hospital

Laboratory overview

Our Drugs of Abuse (DoA) Laboratory at Kings’ College Hospital provides an analytical service primarily to the Addictions Division of South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and local community centres to assess drug use or misuse, and to confirm adherence in inpatients undergoing rehabilitation for drug addiction.  

Key features

• All samples sent for a ‘Standard’ Urine Drug Screen (UDS) are analysed using a combination of automated immunoassay, enzymatic assay, and liquid chromatography with high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HR-MS).
• Creatinine is measured as a marker of sample integrity on all urine samples. Individual drugs/metabolites and drug classes are reported as either ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ based on European Workplace Drug Testing Society ‘cut-off’ concentrations (www.ewdts.org).
• Additional specialist tests by enzymatic assay (urine ethanol), immunoassay (barbiturates), and by LC-HR-MS (buprenorphine and metabolites, ketamine and norketamine, mephedrone, tramadol and metabolites - see other analytes in the ‘Our Tests’ section of the website) are available on request, and can be carried out on the same specimen as supplied originally. Alternatively, a ‘Premium UDS’ test is available which includes a ‘Standard UDS’, plus the additional LC-HR-MS tests listed above.

Please check the Viapath website regularly for service updates – further new tests will be added in response to service requirements.