Breathalyzers in Clinical Alcohol and Drug Care Programs
Leveraging advancements in digital technology to drive the campaign against alcohol abuse.
Global Trends in Alcohol Use and Substance Abuse
Substance abuse has long been described by many observers and stakeholders in the medical sphere as a plague ravaging the world. Regardless of population demographics, health disparities and cultural perspective on controlled substance use, there are emerging data indications suggesting that the menace cuts across different nationality, ethnicity and professional background.
Over the last decade, regions where strict regulations are not enacted to curb substance abuse has witnessed an unprecedented rise in domestic crimes and organized gang-related crimes. Beyond the widely known health implication of excessive alcohol use and substance abuse, reduced productivity associated with a rapidly increasing economic burden has also been linked with excessive alcohol use and substance abuse.
In 2015, the American Journal of Preventive Medicine published a review articles examining the National costs and excessive alcohol consumption in the United States. Data sources, as revealed, indicated that the economic cost of excessive alcohol use amounts to a staggering $249 billion in 2010. However, the total cost –including cost to government, estimated cost of binge drinking, gestational alcohol use, and underage drinking –reduced steadily to around $223.5 billion in 2006.
Across Europe, regulations on alcohol use has been helpful in controlling substance abuse and incidence of substance use disorders among the population. Strategies currently used by government agencies in limiting alcohol use includes increased taxation on alcohol products, reduced alcohol outlet density, and the introduction of strict licensing modalities for commercial retailers.
Elements of Clinical Alcohol and Drug Addiction Care Programs
Various care programs and awareness campaigns have been activated in some regions based on therapy methods that have been confirmed to be effective over the years. Prevention modalities are a basic part of clinical alcohol and drug addiction care programs. These care programs are designed as a patient-focused approach incorporating pharmacotherapy plans with digital tools and hardware measuring tools to evaluate therapy. Currently, the newly recommended plan for alcohol addiction programs involves the fusion of psychotherapy and technology-based intervention (TBI) methods. TBIs in people with alcohol dependence in channeled in a two-way approach that encompasses digital support programs, alcohol blood level measurement and addiction treatment.
The role of technology-based interventions in reducing the rate of alcohol consumption are somewhat questionable and also complicated when discussed. However, the idea basically involves taking advantage of advancement in digital technology to drive the campaign against irresponsible use of alcohol products. Text messaging, interactive voice-recognition, and smart phone apps are the leading examples in this domain. In 2013, an early study evaluating the effectiveness of technology-based interventions in primary care settings for substance use programs was published by PLOS Medicine. Conclusions derived from over 75 controlled trials published in the review suggests that these methods improved the rate of patient adherence to therapy plans in substance abuse programs. This study has since scored a significant point for the inclusion of TBIs in alcohol care programs. Most importantly, technology-based interventions now replace traditional methods of evaluating alcohol use with rapid, convenient, and sensitive methods. Perhaps, the major setback to traditional methods of measuring blood alcohol levels is the limitation in accuracy. These methods are also considered to be relatively low on sensitivity and hence can be inadequate in substance-specific testing. Participants in clinical alcohol care programs often consider urine tests, as with other traditional methods, to be inconvenient and inefficient for document abstinence rate in continued-care programs.
As expected, clinical evaluation of alcohol use and rate of adherence to care programs are determined by measuring the level of blood alcohol content (BAC). The difficulties presented by traditional methods have fueled a quest for the development of modern methods based on technological innovations. Until recently, urine test and laboratory blood analysis are the main methods of measuring BAC.
With advances in technology-based interventions, breathalyzers have been developed as a modern approach to measuring BAC. Breathalyzers are sensitive digital hardware tools that can detect blood alcohol content and produce on-the-spot reproducible results. The different breathalyzer brands currently available in the market generally uses any of three innovative technologies –Fuel cell testers, Infrared Spectrometer, and Semiconductor oxide-based testers.
Breathalyzers in Clinical Alcohol and Drug Addiction Care Programs
Digital hardware tools are the new addition to residential and in-patient treatment plans for substance abuse patients. These tools evaluate adherence and provides a remote support for patients on substance use disorder treatments and addiction care plans. It is now common to find government-sponsored programs using hardware tools in facilitating routine workshops, individual and family counselling, and individualized use plans as regards alcohol and drug monitoring.
As regards alcohol addiction, breathalyzers help patients embrace sobriety and recover quickly from addiction. Breathalyzers and other hardware tool in substances use evaluations are becoming increasingly popular in the U.S and Europe. In 2019, the Wall Street Journal published an article review of DynamiCare Health –an evidence-based platform that supports and reward substance abuse patients on a deliberate path to recovery. This article also included comments on the infusion of cash by venture capitalists into startups focused on developing novel hardware and digital-based tools for use in alcohol addiction programs. Unfortunately, a lot of people still consider hardware tools especially breathalyzers as devices merely used in DUI cases.
Semiconductor oxide-based breathalyzers uses an ethanol-sensitive sensor to detect and measure BAC. By using a tin-oxide material cheaper than platinum fuel cell sensor technology, this breathalyzer brands are particularly useful in self-monitoring of blood alcohol content. Customized brands of this same technology is used by labs and low-volume professional testing agents in alcohol testing procedures. Fuel cell breathalyzers are portable, sensitive and extremely sensitive.
Relying on an electrochemical process, the fuel cell consists of two platinum electrodes and a porous acid-electrolyte setup. Platinum oxidizes the alcohol content present in a stream of exhaled breath and produces protons, electrons and acetic acid. Electrons, as an indication of current, flows through a circuit setup and provides a reproducible estimate of the blood alcohol content. Fuel cell sensors are used by law enforcement officers for roadside alcohol screening and by clinics and primary care centers managing alcoholics. Breathalyzers based on the techniques of infrared spectrometry are large and are mainly suitable for confirmatory tests of independent results of BAC. Alcohol content in a sample is analyzed by determining the rate at which alcohol molecules absorbs infrared light of a specific wavelength.
Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) Testing
Blood alcohol content testing is important in medical and legal foregrounds. BAC results reveal the level of alcohol in the blood as direct measurement of intoxication level and impairment. Depending on volume consumed, impairments associated with heavy alcohol includes impairment in depth perception, reasoning, peripheral vision, reflexes, and gross motor skills. In Europe and many states of the U.S., drivers and operators of heavy machinery are considered legally intoxicated at a BAC level of .08% and above.
Results lower than this threshold can be interpreted in relation to the impairments associated with the BAC level. For instance, at 0.02%, a user might be judged to have an impaired sense of judgment, and at .05%, a user might be judged to have lost control of the small muscles resulting in reduced alertness and poor coordination during physical activities. At .08%, the impairment noticed include loss of balance, slower reaction rate, slurred speech, loss of visual acuity, loss of hearing and difficulty in detecting danger. With loss in visual acuity and reduced reaction time, a driver finds it difficult to control speed limit or recognize traffic signals.
Impairments are more pronounced at a BAC level of .10% as it becomes difficult for drivers under the influence to maintain lane position or machinery operators under the influence to recognize the right controls. At .15% and above, there is loss of consciousness and memory with an associated breathing difficulty that can eventually leads to death. These evaluations are important in legal cases bordering on determining BAC levels .
BAC Testing Might be Required
In most cases, BAC test results are ordered in legal proceedings as evidences for crimes committed under the influence. It is common practice in different countries to order for a BAC test immediately after an auto crash with the possibility that alcohol might play a major role in cognitive impairment. BAC results might also be ordered as a part of random drug test at workplaces and in organized sporting activities. Some life insurance policies also require that the insured presents periodic BAC results that proves abstinence from alcohol. In all these instances, the point is to prove sobriety and abstinence from alcohol use.
In medical practice, on-the-spot BAC tests might be required to ascertain the remote cause of confusion or poor coordination. BAC tests are particularly important in clinical alcohol and drug addiction programs. Subsequent tests performed over a period of time can adequately evaluate the effectiveness of a technology-based intervention (TBI) method adopted for an addiction care plan. In a continued-care plan, reliable alcohol tests assess the level of after-care abstinence from alcohol, recovery rate and alcohol consumption rate monitoring.