Continuous Monitoring
The sweat patch is designed to be worn for seven days. The sweat patch continuously captures any drug and/or drug metabolites that are excreted in the sweat during the seven-day wear period. One week of sweat patch monitoring is equivalent to three to four urine specimen tests spread over a week.
Difficult to Adulterate and Substitute
Each patch is printed with a unique serial number that the operator records when applying the patch. All the common methods of adulterating the collection pad leave visible signs that can be detected by the operator who removes the patch.
Detects Six Drugs, Does Not Detect Alcohol
The laboratory analyzes the sweat patch for the presence of cocaine, marijuana, opiates, amphetamine, methamphetamine, and PCP. The sweat patch captures the parent drug for cocaine, heroin, and marijuana; urine tests detect the metabolites of these drugs. The patch does not detect alcohol.
Laboratory Test, Not an On-Site test
The patch gives no visible indication of the presence or absence of drugs. The operator sends the patch to the laboratory, which performs GC/MS confirmation testing on non-negative screening results.
No Expiration Date
The sweat patch consists of an absorbent pad held in place by a semi-permeable adhesive film. There are no reagents, enzymes, or chemicals in the pad, so there is no expiration date for the patches.
Rook reebuson says
Does the patch test for DXM? can DXM cause the patch to show a false positive?
Jennie Lee-Pace says
No. The sweat patch does not screen for DXM, nor can DXM contribute to a false positive test result.
Rook Reebuson says
Thank you Jenny I actually forgot to ask about Mucinex DM? Is it a medication that will show on the sweat patch. I have cold and cough issues and I was thinking about medicating with Mucinex DM and I am on the pharmcheck sweat patch, I just don’t want to have problem with it showing up either directly or as a false positive
Jake says
So the Pharmchek sweat patch does not detect alcohol usage?
Jennie Lee-Pace says
No, it does not detect alcohol. Saliva or urine or breath testing devices can detect alcohol use.
Beverly says
Could energy drinks or diet shakes result in false positives
Jennie Lee-Pace says
Hi Beverly.
No. The sweat patch only detects the drugs of abuse.
Alex Sosa says
Can Xanax be detected in drug patch ?
Jennie Lee-Pace says
Xanax is in the benzodiazepine drug class and is currently not detectable using this 5 panel sweat patch. It is detectable with other sweat patches that detect benzodiazepines.
Mark Miller says
What if the subject is injecting the patch using
needles and 99% isoprophy alcohol.
Jennie Lee-Pace says
The lab will be able to detect it and identify and adulteration attempt.
Deborah Fiss says
1. How often are complaints made that the patch will not adhere to the skin?
2. How can tampering vs poor adherence to an individuals’s skin be determined?
3. If a patch is left on for 10 days or longer without a covering, can the specimen become compromised?
Jennie Lee-Pace says
Hello Deborah.
Thank you for your inquiry.
1. How often are complaints made that the patch will not adhere to the skin? Rarely do we hear complaints about the patch not adhering to the skin. If you follow the application instructions to thoroughly clean the skin, excess oils and dead skin cells will be removed before the patch is applied. Also, you should let the skin dry after cleaning before applying the patch.
2. How can tampering vs poor adherence to an individuals’s skin be determined? The sweat patch is a tamper-evident device, so you will know when someone has removed it and tried to reapply it. The adhesive on the sweat patch penetrates the upper layer of the skin. When removed, skin cells from the top layer of skin adhere to the adhesive, making it hard to reapply the sweat patch.
3. If a patch is left on for 10 days or longer without a covering, can the specimen become compromised? No. The sweat patch is designed to be worn for 7-10 days. In a Michigan pilot study, 87% wore the patch 14 full days. The skin has about 15 to 20 layers of skin cells. The top layer of cells is constantly shed. The factor that determines how long a person can wear the sweat patch is how long it takes for enough skin cells to be shed that the adhesive coating on the patch is completely covered with skin cells and can no longer stick to testing subject’s body.