SAMHSA-5
Definition
The five-drug federal workplace panel of the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: amphetamines, cocaine metabolite, marijuana (THC-COOH), opiates and PCP. Adopted as a starting reference by most Indian and international labs.
- Origin
- US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
- Panel size
- 5 drug classes
- Drugs covered
- Amphetamines, cocaine metabolite, THC-COOH, opiates, PCP
- Use case
- Federal workplace drug testing baseline
Common questions
Why do labs outside the US still use the SAMHSA-5 as a reference?+
The panel represents a well-validated, widely recognised minimum set of analytes with established cutoffs, so many international and Indian laboratories adopt it as a starting configuration and then add analytes relevant to local drug trends.
Is a SAMHSA-5 negative result the same as saying no drugs are present?+
No. It only screens for the five specified classes at their defined cutoffs, so a substance outside that panel, or present below the cutoff, would not be flagged even though it is genuinely present in the sample.
How does the SAMHSA-5 differ from a comprehensive toxicology screen?+
The five-panel test is a targeted, cost-controlled screen built for routine workplace testing, while a comprehensive screen casts a much wider analytical net for forensic or clinical cases where the substance involved is unknown.
Related terms
- Adulteration
- Deliberate tampering of a urine specimen to defeat the screen. Common adulterants include nitrite, chromate, peroxide, glutaraldehyde, niacin, vinegar and Visine. Detected...
- Confirmatory Test
- A test with sufficient specificity to establish the identity of a biological fluid for reporting purposes. Examples include Takayama and Teichmann crystal...
- Cut-Off Concentration
- The threshold analyte concentration, set by regulatory guidance, above which a specimen is reported as a screen-positive. Choosing the cut-off balances sensitivity...
- Detection Window
- The period after last use during which a drug or its metabolite is detectable in a given matrix. Varies from minutes (blood,...
- EMIT
- Enzyme-Multiplied Immunoassay Technique. Homogeneous immunoassay where drug-enzyme conjugate competes with drug in the sample for antibody binding; free conjugate retains enzyme activity,...
- MRM
- Multiple Reaction Monitoring. LC-MS-MS or GC-MS-MS mode that follows specific precursor-to-product ion transitions for each target analyte, giving very high selectivity at...
- Screening Test
- A fast, sensitive immunoassay (EMIT, CEDIA, FPIA, KIMS, lateral-flow) that flags a sample as presumptive positive against a class cut-off. Sensitive and...