Home Drug Tests – Weighing Privacy Against a Trip to the Doctors Office

If you’ve seen the signs of drug use or symptoms of drug use in your teen, then you might be wondering if you want to use a home drug test kit and do it yourself or take your son or daughter to see your local doctor. Since instant drug tests offer accuracy that compares favorably to lab results, many doctors are using the same type of instant kits you can get and use at home, in their doctor’s office. The testing technology is similar. The big differences revolve around who administers the tests, how the results are handled and cost.

The doctors office will be more expensive and you don’t need a medical background to read test results. The bigger question is this. Do you really want a record of your child’s drug test on file?

The health records may be secure and confidential today, but as the shift continues toward electronic record keeping, there are legitimate security risks in the future, not the least of which is who has access to those records. Will private doctors always possess sole access to those records, or could access expand to insurance companies or government agencies?

Can anyone guarantee that in the future, no laws will be changed that would allow insurance companies, government agencies or anyone else for that matter, access to your child’s medical records? Nobody can guarantee it. By contrast, when home tests are used, there is no written medical record and the results are kept private between you and your child, as they should be.

If you want to know more about using home drug tests or picking out the best test for your teen, or the steps to starting a home drug testing program, let me encourage you to visit online resources that provide program checklists, counselor approved strategies and video tutorials at no charge.

Copyright TestMyTeen, LLC 2010

www.testmyteen.com Dr. Deb Carlin is a psychologist who works closely with the TestMyTeen.com initiative. Her work provides home drug test kits and home drug testing strategies to prevent signs of drug use and symptoms of drug use in teens.