Drug Testing in a University Athletic Program: Protocol and Implementation

In brief: Much attention is being focused on drug abuse by athletes. As sports medicine physicians become increasingly involved in the drug abuse issue, they are called upon not only to educate and counsel athletes but also to test them for drugs. This paper discusses an athletic drug education/counseling screening program at Wake Forest University. Such a program requires practical decisions regarding which athletes to test under informed consent, which drugs to test for and how to test for them, in what way and how often to collect urine samples for testing, and what measures to take when an athlete has a positive test result. Constant feedback from everyone involved allows for modification of the program as needed to make it more confidential, acceptable, and beneficial.