Long gone are the days when drug addicts were kept in closed enclosures and subjected to intense questioning and forced to admit their addiction. With the very interesting research by Russian scientists, this might become as easy as getting your sugar levels tested.

Specialists at the Institute of Physiologically Active Substances, Russian Academy of Sciences and of the Moscow Narcological Clinical Hospital have developed this new technique tentatively titled Dianarc which uses the Enzyme linked Immuno-sorbent assay (ELISA) test to detect specific antibodies against specific drugs.

This is far reaching benefits not only to detect drug abuse but also in fields like forensic medicine and to detect use of performance enhancing drugs in sportspersons.

Current methods of testing can detect abuse only if it has occured in the week preceeding the test. But Dianarc can detect these substances in samples taken even a few months after abuse and even if only one or two doses were taken.

On a different note, drug addiction can be detected at a very early stage and proper steps can be initiated to nip it in the bud.

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