Methadone Motabolite Test?
Question by stormysummer: Methadone Motabolite test?
I’m currently in a Methadone maintenance program which I have been on since I was 21 & Ive recently just turned 30, I have never had a dirty drug screen, {I get tested once monthly}. Since a Methadone Clinic has recently opened in my town I no longer have to drive long distances to recieve my medication, I have been at this new clinic since September 09.
I recently “heard” from another patient at the clinic that, this clinic also tests for Methadone & Its motabolites (EDDP) I dont think the other clinics Ive attended in the past did this, but Im not certain. Im currently on a 80mg dose & it seems to be the right dose for me at this time, I was on 70mg when I started this new clinic in Sept.
Anyhow my concern is this, over this last weekend when I recieved my takehomes (takehomes are when you get to bring your med home instead of having to travel there everyday to take it under supervision, If you are clean from all other drugs except the methadone you get this privilage, otherwise you have to go Everyday to take it) I took my dose at home Sunday morning around 5am & not 10 mins later I vomited my entire dose up. [ I have 3 children under the age of 12 & my son had been sick with a bad virus with diareah & vomiting} I apparently caught the virus, however I felt extremely ill for the remainder of the day & started going into withdrawls on top of being sick with this stomach bug, When I made it to the clinic Monday morning at 5am I was in pretty bad withdrawls by this time, I was due to get my Monthly urine test, My concern is that since this clinic tests for methadone in the test to make sure that people are taking their meds like they are supposed to and not selling it or missusing the program. I was wanting to know if someone were to skip a dose “for whatever reason” and were tested the very next day after said missed dose, would the Methadone Motabolites still be in the urine? I would think that just missing one day, the methadone would still show in a drug test due to its extremely long half-life. Im hoping that it WILL show up that the motabolites are in my system when the test comes back, {the results arent back yet}. I would hate to lose my takehomes over this since I earned them & it took a very long time to “earn” them. Ive stressed myself to death over this all week to the point Im extremely depressed about it now, Ive spent everyday since Sunday looking on the internet about this trying to find out if my test is gonna come back negative for methadone & its motabolites & no matter how I would word this in the search bars of yahoo, google, or bing, I couldnt find the answer I was looking for. If i did find something it would be in pdf format & my laptop wouldnt let me view pdf for some reason, I havent had this laptop very long so I dunno.
Im just hoping Someone who knows a little about methadone can help me find out. I only really missed one dose, and Im making myself sick not knowing what my test is going to come back as.
ANY help would be so greatly appreciated.. THANKS..
Best answer:
Answer by robert b
if you only missed 1 dose, it should still be there. like you said, it has an extremely long half-life
Answer by Mathieu
I’m sorry you have been stressing your self out.
You will be fine, methadone is a very long acting with a half-life of about 15-60hrs. A large reason Methadone is used in opioid dependency is because it lasts such a long time where as heroin, morphine, oxycodone, and other opioids don’t last very long so there are big “highs” and big lows. Methadone is fairly stable so withdrawal won’t occur and (typically) there will be no high. And since you have been on the drug for 9 years and you are on a high dose (typically equal to a few hundred of morphine) that the drug would be detected longer than it would for many other people.
It is also due to the long duration of action and the metabolite that causes methadone to cause the most fatalities in people using it for pain (not for opioid dependency). Often a person might take a pill to early or take two on accident and depending on other medications and the dose it can kill. And people using it for pain take it much more often then you so people in a methadone programme don’t typically have that problem.
Most likely they will only test for the metabolite (EDDP), which is only found in people on methadone so there is no need to actually test for methadone.
You will be fine, try not to worry. Good luck