Citation

Kane G. J. Negat. Results Biomed. 2013; 12(1): e16.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group - BMC)

DOI

10.1186/1477-5751-12-16

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

BACKGROUND: A Drug Influence Evaluation (DIE) is a formal assessment of an impaired driving suspect, performed by a trained law enforcement officer who uses circumstantial facts, questioning, searching, and a physical exam to form an unstandardized opinion as to whether a suspect's driving was impaired by drugs. This paper first identifies the scientific studies commonly cited in American criminal trials as evidence of DIE accuracy, and second, uses the QUADAS tool to investigate whether the methodologies used by these studies allow them to correctly quantify the diagnostic accuracy of the DIEs currently administered by US law enforcement.

RESULTS: Three studies were selected for analysis. For each study, the QUADAS tool identified biases that distorted reported accuracies. The studies were subject to spectrum bias, selection bias, misclassification bias, verification bias, differential verification bias, incorporation bias, and review bias. The studies quantified DIE performance with prevalence-dependent accuracy statistics that are internally but not externally valid.

CONCLUSION: The accuracies reported by these studies do not quantify the accuracy of the DIE process now used by US law enforcement. These studies do not validate current DIE practice. © 2013 Kane; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

Keywords: Cannabis impaired driving; DUID; Ethanol impaired driving

Language: en

Keywords

Humans; Questionnaires; human; evaluation; epidemiology; alcohol; prevalence; police; cannabis; methodology; drug use; article; sensitivity and specificity; opiate; amphetamine derivative; anesthetic agent; Automobile driver examination; barbituric acid derivative; benzodiazepine; benzodiazepine derivative; Bias (Epidemiology); breath analysis; central depressant agent; central stimulant agent; cocaine; dexamphetamine; dextromethorphan; diagnostic accuracy; diagnostic test; Diagnostic Tests, Routine; diazepam; disease course; Disease Progression; driver licence; driving ability; Drug evaluation and classification program; drug influence evaluation; Drug influence evaluation; Drug recognition expert; gold standard; illicit drug; law enforcement; Law Enforcement; measurement accuracy; mescaline; MESH terms; methaqualone; morphine; narcotic agent; narcotic analgesic agent; Non-MESH; Pharmaceutical Preparations; physical examination; predictive value; psychedelic agent; Quality Assurance, Health Care; quality control; Reference Standards; reproducibility; Reproducibility of Results; Research design; secobarbital; Sensitivity and specificity; Sobriety testing; systematic error; urinalysis; validation study