Extended EMIT-DAU phencyclidine screen

In a public hospital emergency room, 580 urines were screened for phencyclidine (PCP) with the routine EMIT-DAU PCP screen, the extended EMIT-DAU PCP screen, and a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer/computer (GC/MS/COMP) in selected ion mode, which was chosen as the reference method. The extended method produced a 38.5% increase in positives detected over the routine EMIT-DAU PCP screen and allowed 66.4% of the specimens to be signed out as negative without confirmation by GC/MS/COMP. This ability to provide a rapid, relatively inexpensive screen for PCP in urine and, in particular, to eliminate those patients whose specimens are negative, is important in a psychiatric population that contains many acutely psychotic individuals with grossly abnormal behavior.