Evaluation of Seven Immunoassays Not Commonly Used in Toxicology

Several abused drugs are routinely screened by forensic laboratories. However, there are other commonly abused drugs that are not routinely screened. Diphenhydramine, dextromethorphan, methadone, sertraline, fluoxetine, tricyclics, and carisoprodol are all compounds that are seen in toxicological samples but are rarely screened. The implementation of a screening method is desirable in order to decrease laborious tasks and amount of sample needed. In order to determine if screening these compounds by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) should be adopted, a prevalence study of these compounds was conducted on 1304 previously tested forensic samples. It was observed that dextromethorphan, methadone, sertraline, fluoxetine, tricyclics, and carisoprodol were seen in less than 2% of forensic samples; while diphenhydramine was observed in 4% of forensic samples.