Thirteen years of drug testing at the department of military forensic medicine in Rome: analytical results.

The drug phenomenon has biopsychosocial connotations that must always be borne in mind when assessing the health status of a military community as part of the wider population in which it operates. This retrospective epidemiological study, conducted at the DMML - Dipartimento Militare di Medicina Legale) (Department of Military Forensic Medicine) in Rome, described over 13 years of EMIT tests on substances of abuse (drug tests) and benzodiazepines (BZDs), carried out for screening purposes on both military and civilian personnel and for medicolegal screening purposes on personnel of the Armed Forces and of State Corps referring to the DMML (central/southern Italy). An analytical study was also carried out on frozen samples stored at this Department, to assess any decay in the concentration of metabolites previously found positive and confirmed by the 2nd level test in previous years. A positivity of 10.75% for BZDs emerged out of a total of about 4,700 samples and 1.10% for drug tests. There were no drastic decreases in concentration in the tested substances after storage at different temperatures, even though storage at freezer temperature (20° C and without excessive temperature fluctuations) is optimal compared to that in the refrigerator. There were also few changes between storage at refrigerator temperature and room temperature. The extrapolated data from the years considered revealed a consistent level of abuse within the Armed Forces, as well as an increasing trend, primarily affecting the State and Police Corps. Notably, the latter are not subject to random checks. The high number of positive tests for BZDs is a factor deserving attention that opens an employment and occupational scenario on the motivations that drive State Corps and Police personnel to use/abuse such substances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]