Answers for urgent circumstances

For patients who present with signs and symptoms of toxicity due to substance use, such as coma, altered mental state, cardiotoxicity, and seizures of an undetermined cause, definitive emergency urine drug testing (UDT) performed as part of the medical evaluation can assist with patient care and management.

Emergency drug testing at Mayo Clinic is performed 24 hours a day, seven days a week in the Clinical and Forensic Toxicology Laboratory (CFTL). Designed to manage apparent overdose or intoxicated patients, our emergency and overdose testing can help determine whether symptoms are due to the presence of drugs. Aimed at detecting drugs that have toxic effects but lack a known antidote or therapy, these evaluations are not appropriate for detecting drugs of abuse or to screen for intermittent or illicit drug use.

Prescription and over-the-counter drug screens, which are performed using gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GS/MS), are available to test for a broad range of drugs in serum or urine. Drugs identified above reportable (detection) limits will be reported as present.