Serenity Lane Portland East Explains EtG Alcohol Testing and Other Kinds of Alcohol Tests

July 19, 2022 - /PressAdvantage/ - Serenity Lane Portland East, a treatment facility for drug abuse and alcoholism based in Portland, OR, has recently published a blog post that explains EtG alcohol testing and other kinds of alcohol tests that are much more accurate than the breathalyzer test but are more time-consuming. These tests are used to measure blood alcohol content (BAC), which is the amount of alcohol in the bloodstream of a person at a given time. Legally, having a BAC of 0.08 percent or more is considered to be drunk or intoxicated. Even just one drink can increase a person’s BAC but binge drinking and heavy drinking can increase the BAC much more quickly.

A breathalyzer is commonly used to test the alcohol content in a person but it will only measure how alcohol is found in a particular person’s breath. The BAC can be measured within minutes but it reaches its peak about one hour after drinking. While breathalyzers continue to be used for checking whether a person is drunk or intoxicated, it suffers from low accuracy as it has a 50 percent margin of error when compared to an actual blood alcohol test.

Blood alcohol tests can be used for various purposes. The most common ones are: when a person has been drinking in a treatment program; when a person has been drinking and driving; when a person is drunk or intoxicated; and when a person is suffering from alcohol poisoning. For a blood alcohol test, a health care professional will draw blood from the patient and this blood sample is analyzed. However, this will usually take several weeks, which is quite inconvenient.

This is where EtG testing comes in. This is a urine test that looks for ethyl glucuronide or EtG, which is a byproduct of ethanol, and a compound produced by the liver, which is glucuronide. Glucuronide attaches itself to toxins, which is how toxins in the body can be excreted. With alcohol, glucuronide attaches to ethanol to form EtG, which is what the test is designed to detect in the urine. EtG is the most accurate test for alcohol in the body because it can be detected in the person’s urine for approximately 48 hours or two days. And if the drinking is heavier, it can even be detected for up to 72 hours or three days. However, EtG testing also has some disadvantages. It cannot determine how much alcohol a person has been drinking, although higher levels tend to show higher alcohol consumption. There is a maximum limit to how much EtG can be measured and EtG tests were only designed to indicate any type of drinking, not heavy drinking.

Testing positive doesn’t necessarily mean that a person has an alcohol addiction. However, frequent binge drinking or heavy drinking can indicate the possibility of alcohol use disorder or AUD. Serenity Lane offers alcoholism treatment and the initial process is detox, whose purpose is to eliminate alcohol from the body. Detox from alcohol requires medical supervision because there are a number of withdrawal symptoms people with AUD will need to contend with, such as depression, mood swings, not thinking clearly, nightmares, and anxiety. Some medications may be provided to help relieve those symptoms. After detox, several options for therapy are available, such as group therapy and family therapy.

Since 1973, Serenity Lane has been licensed right from the beginning as a specialty hospital that provides addiction treatment and all of the programs they offer have been accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF). They are the only treatment center in Oregon that is completely licensed as a specialty hospital that can provide medically assisted detox. They have introduced a number of new programs throughout the years, including residential step-down and outpatient programs that integrate outpatient and residential treatment services. They have also been the only provider of the Addiction Counselor Training Program in Oregon and some of their graduates are currently involved in treatment programs available in various parts of the US.

People who are interested in learning more about the addiction treatment services provided by Serenity Lane Portland East, can visit their website, or contact them through the telephone or via email. They are open from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, from Monday to Friday.

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For more information about Serenity Lane Portland East, contact the company here:

Serenity Lane Portland East
(503) 546-7677
[email protected]
12662 SE Stark, Plaza 125 Bldg. A.
Portland, OR, 97233

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