Questions about False Positives in Drug Testing, page 204

False Positives Forum

This forum is intended to help those who Do NOT Abuse Drugs. We do NOT support the illegal use of any substance. If you have experience with false positives, share your experience. What would you tell someone about drug testing and false positives? Please remember that this forum is not for medical or legal advice.

No prescriptions listed on form
Date: 5/26/2012
Tested positive for thc do not smoke at all!! I was on 800mg ibuprofen for ear infection with tramadol and cough syrup. Follow up GC/Ms was also positive??? MRO said no prescriptions were listed on form and it diddnt matter?

Mozz

AskDocWeb: We are only speculating here but your MRO may have meant that even if prescriptions were listed on the form, that is irrelevant because the result was confirmed by the GC/MS test. Did you actually see your GC/MS test results or are you just taking the MRO’s word for that?

Tested positive for Fentanyl
Date: 5/26/2012
I recently tested positive for Fentanyl. I am absolutely sure that I did not use this drug, as it has made me extremely I’ll in the past. So, I took he Internet to figure out what caused this false-positive. I located a document entitled “Ordering and Interpreting Urine Drug Screens” published by the University of Michigan. (UMHS Guidelines for Clinical Care May 2009, At this site: http://www.med.umich.edu/1info/FHP/practiceguides/pain/drugtesting.pdf. This document lists Trazodone as causing a false-positive result for Fentanyl. I take Trazodone. This is the only documentation I have been able to locate. Is it strong enough to present to my physician and would you concur? Thanks for your assistance.

Sherie

AskDocWeb: That document is just one of the Guidelines published by the University of Michigan Health System to help physicians in managing patients with chronic non-terminal pain. Since it is on the University’s website and copyrighted by the Regents it is typically viewed as a reputable source.

It may also help to consult with the pathologist or other senior clinician at the lab where your screen was actually done. They have the most up-to-date information and should be able to tell you which medications can give false positive results on their tests.

False positives from inhalers
Date: 5/28/2012
I have been on suboxone tablets for 5 years and very often I use the vicks and sometimes generic inhalers daily. I was in an accident at work they took a drug test for work comp. It’s a two part they sent one off to be tested and the other has been stored at hospital well it came back as ampedimens. What would cause this? I don’t do drugs and if I did I wouldn’t be able too fill them because of the subox plz help.

Tim

AskDocWeb:
The Vicks inhaler and Afrin nasal spray have been reported to sometimes show up as a false positive for amphetamines and/or Ecstasy on urine tests for drugs of abuse.

Sources:

If you do not contest the results you may lose more than just your job. Insurance companies save millions of dollars by denying benefits to innocent people who get false positives. If you are unjustly labeled a drug user, you may lose all medical and unemployment benefits. This is why it is so important to get the test results confirmed, ideally by an independent laboratory. By demanding a confirmation test you put the burden of proof on them. Good luck Tim. Let us know how you come out.

Atrovent HFA
Date: 5/28/2012
Can atrovent HFA show up a positive druf test?

William

AskDocWeb: The active ingredient in Atrovent HFA Inhalation Aerosol is ipratropium bromide (as the monohydrate). There are no reports of false positives involving Atrovent HFA with drug screening.

Atrovent HFA is a prescription medication used as an anticholinergic bronchodilator to treat airway spasms caused by COPD, nonallergic and allergic rhinitis.

Positive for BENZOS
Date: 5/28/2012
The halfway house tested me and i tested positive for BENZOS. I take trazodone, sertraline and vistera. I am sure it was a false positive they wont even look at this.

Mary

AskDocWeb: Hi Mary, welcome to the forum. You have to realize that lying is so common among drug abusers that it is typically assumed to be the case. If you believe that your test result was a false positive then it is up to you to contest the results.

Mozz continued
Date: 5/28/2012
Response to gc/ms and MRO report I was the one who does not ever smoke but had been taking 800mg of advil every 6 hours for 3 days prior to work drug test. MRO states that gc/ms still showed positive for THC. There were no prescriptions listed on the report. I have not seen the report. MRO states it should not matter but I thought they needed a process to screen the advil metabolites out to measure the thc metabolites? what can i do?

Prescriptions not on form: To clarify I have not seen the gc/ms reports but mro indicated that having the medical record with the 800mg of Advil for 3 days every 6 hrs. would not have mattered. I thought from my research they needed a chemical to separate out the advil metabolites as they are similar to thc? In addition I passed a home test 2 days later after stopping most of the Advil…finally had antibiotics.

Mozz

AskDocWeb: For the GC/MS confirmation test, no chemical is needed to separate out any metabolites from a sample. In the GC/MS test the sample is vaporized and both the color spectrum and specific molecular mass of the molecules are analyzed to identify what substances are present in the sample.

We think that it is important to see the hard copy output from the GC/MS rather than just taking the MRO’s word it. If they can’t produce it then a confirmation test may not have been done. Someone may just be trying to get you to admit to abusing drugs. If you are innocent then contest the results of the drug test.

MCAT
Date: 5/29/2012
I was just wondering I had a small amount of mcat 3 nights ago I think It was 4-5 small lines I might have to have a hair drugs test around about July will I fail the test even though I only took a small amount?

Chloe

AskDocWeb: Assuming that your mcat was methcathinone with nothing else mixed in, that is not detected by standard drug tests however, given its popularity in certain places that may well change.

Tested positive for Methadone
Date: 5/29/2012
Hello, I am a chronic pain patient for aprox. 30 years and have had many routine drug tests as I take narcotics. Never have I had a positve test for anything other than I am taking until recently. I have tested positive for Methadone, yet never taken the drug in my life. i don’t event drink alcohol. Please see the following list of meds I am on and also I have started a new drug, Prozac. Can you help me with an explanation as to why I would have these false-positve tests only when I started taking Prozac with my regular medications. Thanks! I take: Furosemide, Lansoprazole, Zopiclone, Docusate, Morphine Sulfate, Rosuvastatin, Cyclobenzaprine, Standardized Sennosides, Diclofenac, Gabapentin, Statex.

Tracey

AskDocWeb: According to a post by Doctor Robert A. Katz, Prozac has sometimes shown up as a false positives for amphetamines and LSD. This was also stated in the book, Principles of Addiction Medicine. Prozac has not been reported to show up as methadone but there may be another explanation. Morphine Sulfate, including the trade names Astramorph, Cyclimorph, Duramorph, Morcap, MS Contin, Oramorph, Roxanol, and Severedol tests positive for opiates and Methadone is a synthetic opioid. Does the test used allow one to distinguish between the two?

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