Let's Try Inaccurate Tests For Alcoholism, Too!

Posting Date: 04/27/2000

When companies do drug tests, they don?t want to know if the boss is a boozer, they want to find out if the kid in the mailroom used marijuana on his honeymoon, right?

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Along this line, I see where the associate director of treatment studies at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism thinks tests for biochemical markers of alcohol aren?t be used enough by physicians. The official, John Allen, says doctors should do blood tests to verify what patients tell them about their drinking in order to help those who are addicted kick the habit.

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Just as pertains to the issue of testing for illegal drugs, I?m not for this kind of testing because it?s often inaccurate and violates people's privacy.

The one thing I find interesting is there are three basic tests that look for the biochemical markers for alcohol abuse. They are:

--The GGT Test, which measures levels of gamma glutamyl transferase, an enzyme found in the kidney, liver and other organs that indicates damage from alcohol use.

--The mean corpuscular volume (MCV) test, measures the size of red blood cells since they can be reduced by alcohol consumption.

--The CDT test, which measures levels of carbohydrate-deficient transferrin, a glycoprotein produced by the liver form alcohol damage.

All of these tests could return abnormal results for lots of conditions, not just alcoholism.

I?m sure doctors could do a better job of spotting and helping patients with alcohol problems, but I?m not sure that clandestine testing is the way to do it.