Citation

Reisfield GM, Teitelbaum SA, Large SO, Jones J, Morrison DG, Lewis B. Drug Test. Anal. 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, University of Florida College of Medicine, Division of Addiction Research.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/dta.2809

PMID

32309913

Abstract

Direct alcohol biomarkers, including urinary ethyl glucuronide (EtG), urinary ethyl sulfate (EtS), and blood phosphatidylethanol (PEth), are used to monitor alcohol abstinence in individuals who are mandated to abstain. In this consecutive case-series study, we examined 1,000 forensic reports of participants enrolled in a professionals health program who were contractually obligated to remain abstinent from alcohol and who underwent recovery status evaluations. We identified 52 evaluations in which urinary EtG, EtS, and blood PEth were measured and produced a positive result for at least one of these analytes. PEth, at a cutoff concentration of 20 ng/mL, revealed alcohol use more frequently than EtG or EtS at our laboratory's cutoff concentrations of 100 ng/mL and 25 ng/mL, respectively. This was true, as well, at alternative EtG/EtS cutoff concentrations of 200/50 ng/mL, 300/75 ng/mL, and 400/100 ng/mL. PEth was more likely than EtG/EtS to be positive in participants previously diagnosed with alcohol use disorders, while EtG/EtS was more likely than PEth to be positive in participants without alcohol use disorders. In this study, blood PEth was the most sensitive biomarker for evidencing alcohol use.

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Language: en

Keywords

Phosphatidylethanol (PEth); alcohol; alcohol use disorder; ethyl glucuronide (EtG); ethyl sulfate (EtS)