HelpDesk: How accurate are point-of-care urine drug screens in patients taking chronic opioid therapy?

In adults treated with opioids for chronic pain, point-of-care urine drug screens (immunoassays) for detecting opioids show a false-negative rate of 1.9%, a sensitivity of 92%, and a specificity of 93% compared with the gold-standard liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Oxycodone has the highest rate of false-negative results at 25%; methadone has the lowest rate at 4% to 6% (strength of recommendation: A, 2 blinded diagnostic accuracy studies with similar results).