Urine Drug Screening (UDS) functions as your body’s substance detective—a crucial tool in psychiatric and substance use treatment settings. It helps confirm adherence, detect undisclosed use, and guide clinical decisions in real time. From stimulants and opioids to benzodiazepines and THC, UDS panels offer a snapshot of what’s really going on beneath the surface.
This section equips psychiatric NPs with a smart approach to interpreting results, understanding detection windows, differentiating between false positives and negatives, and navigating confirmatory testing (GC-MS). It also addresses how to communicate findings with empathy while maintaining clinical boundaries. In the right hands, the UDS Investigation Unit becomes not just a tool for accountability, but a bridge to deeper trust and more effective care.