What is the typical SAMHSA cutoff for Cocaine in the screening panel?

What is the typical SAMHSA cutoff for Cocaine in the screening panel?

• A. 150 ng/mL
• B. 300 ng/mL
• C. 1000 ng/mL
• D. 500 ng/mL

Answer: (B)

In urine drug testing, a screening cutoff is the signal level at which a test result is considered positive enough to warrant a confirmatory test. For cocaine, the immunoassay screens look for the cocaine metabolite benzoylecgonine, and labs set a threshold that balances catching true use with avoiding false positives from incidental exposure or cross-reactivity. The value around 300 ng/mL is a commonly used screening threshold in many SAMHSA-compliant panels. Setting the cutoff at this level means that if the immunoassay result for cocaine meets or exceeds 300 ng/mL, the specimen is flagged for confirmatory testing (usually GC-MS or LC-MS/MS). This higher cutoff reduces the likelihood of false positives while still identifying cases of meaningful cocaine use that require confirmation. Other numbers are not the standard screening threshold in this specific context. Some panels historically used around 150 ng/mL, which is more sensitive but increases the risk of false positives; much higher values like 500 or 1000 ng/mL would miss lower levels of use that laboratories typically want to detect in screening.

In urine drug testing, a screening cutoff is the signal level at which a test result is considered positive enough to warrant a confirmatory test. For cocaine, the immunoassay screens look for the cocaine metabolite benzoylecgonine, and labs set a threshold that balances catching true use with avoiding false positives from incidental exposure or cross-reactivity.

The value around 300 ng/mL is a commonly used screening threshold in many SAMHSA-compliant panels. Setting the cutoff at this level means that if the immunoassay result for cocaine meets or exceeds 300 ng/mL, the specimen is flagged for confirmatory testing (usually GC-MS or LC-MS/MS). This higher cutoff reduces the likelihood of false positives while still identifying cases of meaningful cocaine use that require confirmation.

Other numbers are not the standard screening threshold in this specific context. Some panels historically used around 150 ng/mL, which is more sensitive but increases the risk of false positives; much higher values like 500 or 1000 ng/mL would miss lower levels of use that laboratories typically want to detect in screening.