Demands on clinical chemistry services caused by drug related diagnoses

The changing incidence of any given pathology in the catchment population leads to altered demands on the diagnostic services. Since two perceived problems in Glasgow have been solvent abuse and more recently drug abuse, a study was made of the change in numbers of requests to the clinical biochemistry services generated by patients with a diagnosis related to ingestion of drugs. The figures indicate that alcohol abuse leads to the greatest demands on the service and that this trend is increasing. Solvent abuse is a minor problem and in cases of abuse of hard drugs biochemical analyses other than the screening for drugs themselves seem to be required infrequently.