suboxone specific testing

ok, i have a question that i cannot seem to find a reliable answer. Real simple too. How long does suboxone stay in the blood/urine for a drug test? I know it needs to be specifically tested for, so assuming that it is how long would it stay in the system to show up as a positive? I have read about the half life stuff but I don't really understand what is being said. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks to all in advance.

Hi j.bozarth, I really don't know how to answer you question. It depends on your dose. So if you can give us this information that will help.

I am sure when Dee sees your question she can help you will that. She is very educated about Suboxone but we do need your dose because of the half life issue.

I am sorry I really couldn't answer but hang on help is on the way.

Cathy

I believe the dose was only 2 but not more then 4 mgs. I am sorry i never thought about putting that down. Thank you for helping.

I have taken drug tests myself and did not fail any for opiates. As was mentioned above, I believe there is a separate test for Suboxone. I don't think most employment-type screens would bother with Suboxone, especially since they could be entering into some touchy areas because being under legitimate treatment for addiction is considered a disability.

that said, I have found that there were bigger things to worry about with some UA's. My last sub doctor did a multi-panel UA before each appt. and at one mentioned that i had tested positive for PCP the last couple times !!! nothing else, just PCP. at the time I still had insurance so I asked for for a retest which they send out and is expensive. Of course it came out completely negative but for several appts. after that I was still testing positve for PCP!! I did a quick google search and found that EFFEXOR can cause a false-positive for PCP in some UA's.

I ended up switching back to Zoloft when I lost my insurance due to cost. A few appts. later, my doct informed me I was testing positive for Benzo's !!!

I did my own search again and found that ZOLOFT can cause a false positive in some drug UA's.

I gave my doctor a copy of the studies that I had found to have him put them on my file.

What worries me is that if a potential employer had been using that particular test, I might have been screwed out of a job !!

Do you happen to still have the link to where you found the information on the drug screen results.
If so, could you send it to me in a pm?
I'd like to keep a copy of it on file.

I am quite curious about all of these false positives now as well because I also take Zoloft & wonder how that could be considered a benzo? Not to even mention that Effexor can be a false positive for PCP!! Like Dee, I am also curious about where you located that information because I would like to check out the other medications that I am taking & what they could possibly test false positive for as well!! That is just so mind boggling to me! Can you please also send me that link that Dee has also requested? My user name is: bfye. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you~
Beth

I will try to find the links. The one on Effexor was actually published in a medical journal, maybe JAMA. I remember reading it and it started with some ER doctors in a hospital near a nursing home. They would frequently get the nursing home residents in the ER for all sorts of issues and as part of normal UA's they were getting these 90+ yr olds testing positive for PCP. When they started digging, they found that all the patients who tested positive for PCP were on Effexor. It is not like the Effexor is acting like PCP but it had something to do with having some of the same metabolites as PCP and on some UA's it is picked up as a positive for PCP. As i mentioned, when the doc sent it out for the detailed several hundred dollar test, the false positive did NOT occur.

I will look but actually I just found them by Googling the drug name first followed by something UA false positive. I found lots of sites that had lists of all sorts of drugs and their possible false postives but a few of the matches are way over my head.

I do know that my prev. Suboxone doct did confirm with me that he did have several other patients who were only showing positive for PCP and they were all on Effexor. I think it just depends on the type of UA being used but as for what one(s) cause FP's I don't know

Actually I found it even easier than the last time. IN fact, Google has that Artificial intelligence thing going on when you start typing in s search string and as soon as I typed EFFEXOR and started typing FALSE, it AUTOMATICALLY started showing 'false positive PCP". There are now a bunch of matches that talk about EFFEXOR causing FALSE PCP POSITIVE on some UA's

I did find the actual link I was referring to and it gives very specific info as to even the type of UA and all sorts of medical terms that are over my head. It was published in a Clinical Chemisty journal and is publicly available on the web:

http://www.clinchem.org/cgi/content/full/48/4/676

I was shocked. i just did the same thing for ZOLOFT and as soon as I typed ZOLOFT and started typing just the letter "F" for FALSE, it brought up the search string "false positive for benzos".

So if you just GOOGLE

zoloft false positive for benzos


you will get a ton of info and it appears to be a widespread issue

WOW! What really just shocked me more is that I looked at that journal link I posted and it is dated 2002 !!! This was an issue almost ten years ago !!

Thanks Mark,
It gives me some reading to do. I appreciate you going back and doing the search. I do use google, it has been one of my main resources when I have research to do.
Ten years ago! Amazing

Hi Mark!!

How are you getting along these days? I am doing okay, getting by day to day, as we all are working on doing. I wanted to thank you for letting me know where you found that information regarding the Zoloft & Effexor? The Effexor does not pertain to me, but the Zoloft certainly does & I take the highest amount that they prescribe, which is 200mgs daily. So, I am EXTREMELY interested in going to check that out, as well as the other side effects that I am having or may not be aware of knowing. I had been put on Zoloft for post partum depression right after my son was born & he just turned 3 in August, so for at least for 3 years at that dosage. I have started to think that they have stopped working for me & have discussed it with my doctor, who is now decresing my Zoloft while switching me over to Prozac. I have truly felt better within these last couple of weeks than for a LONG time. Yet, I am still curious as to the side effects of the Zoloft because I want to see what other issues it can cause the body as well. Anyways, to make a short story long, I thank you for letting us know where you obtained that information & can't believe that it is almost 10 years old & has not been updated. Unless it doesn't need to be because it has been around for so long now. But I use Google quite often myself, so I am going to check it out.

Thanks again! And by the way, that picture at the top of the page is so beautiful when just a little bigger, but when I tried to put it on here bigger, it was HUGE, longer than the post, but just to see the autumn colors coming in... I could stare at it all day in thought. Have a good one Mark!

Yours in Recovery,
Beth