Optimizing Toxicological Screening in Drug Endangered Children

NCT01037569 | Completed

• 2 other identifiers: 99990743107-DA-N431
• Study Type: observational
• Target: 100
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Background:

• Children who enter the foster care system are all too often exposed to illicit drugs in the home. Children from these homes, known as drug endangered children, are not routinely tested for harmful substances. Any short- and long-term physical or developmental problems they may experience as a result of this exposure often go undetected and untreated.
• Children who are placed into protective custody are not always screened by physicians or nurse practitioners. Although drug-endangered children under 18 years of age automatically receive a urine toxicology screen to determine the types and levels of illicit drugs in their systems, this procedure has difficulties and limitations that may affect the quality of the data. Researchers are interested in developing more effective methods of analyzing the presence or absence of illicit environmental drug exposure in children. Objectives: \- To determine the most effective method of identifying long-term illicit stimulant drug exposure in drug-endangered children. Eligibility: \- Children under 18 years of age who are being placed into protective custody after having been found in a home where drugs are manufactured, used, or sold. Design:
• Researchers will gain verbal consent for the procedure for children who are 7 years of age or older. Children younger than 7 years of age will not be required to give verbal consent for sample collection.
• Researchers will collect standard urine samples for toxicological screening. Part of the sample will be sent to the National Institute on Drug Abuse for evaluation; the rest will remain with the local authority.
• In addition to this standard procedure, researchers will collect a hair sample by cutting a small amount of hair from the crown of the head as close to the root as possible (and not pulling any hair out of the child's head).
• Researchers will also use an oral swab to collect a saliva sample from the inside cheek of each child.
• No clinical care will be provided under this protocol....

Conditions

Substance Abuse Detection

Keywords

Toxicological Screening; Drugs; Alternative Matrices; Urine; Children

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 1 Year - 18 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• children under the age of 18 (the vast majority - 87 percent - of children examined at the Center are under the age of 6);
• children placed into protective custody by Sacramento County CPS or law enforcement;
• children examined at the CAARE Center; and
• children found in a home where drugs are manufactured, used and/or sold.

You may not qualify if:

• anyone who has reached the age of majority;
• those found to have parents who are not drug abusers;
• those where there was no definitive evidence of environmental drug exposure (i.e., suspicious parent, but no drugs were found in the home); or
• any child, drug exposed or not, who is examined in the UCD Emergency Department (after hours - 9:00 pm to 7:00 am - and weekends).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA): lead

Study Sites (1)

University of California, Davis

Davis, California, 95616, United States

Location

Study Design

• Study Type: observational
• Time Perspective: PROSPECTIVE
• Sponsor Type: NIH

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: December 19, 2009
• First Posted: December 23, 2009
• Study Start: July 10, 2007
• Study Completion: March 22, 2011
• Last Updated: July 2, 2017

Record last verified: 2011-03-22

Locations

US (1)