ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the clinical laboratory is a major component of the practice of medicine, though the laboratory, in the same way that a person still walks though crippled, is not indispensable in psychiatric evaluation and psychopharmacological treatment. Laboratory tests in use in medicine vary with respect to sensitivity and specificity. The best example of this is the use of the laboratory in the diagnosis of various endocrinopathies or even autoimmune diseases. The ability of clinicians to rapidly document the abuse of prescription of illicit drugs is critical in accurate diagnosis and development of appropriate treatment plans for psychiatric patients. Hepatitis B has been classically associated with drug abuse and is in fact used by the Drug Awareness Warning Network System to track patterns and distribution of heroin throughout the US as it spreads to different population groups. Chronic liver disease is found in significant numbers of drug abusers.
