Can Ibuprofen Cause A False Positive On A Drug Screen?

Posted on Sat, 2 May 2015

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sat, 2 May 2015 Answered on

Fri, 29 May 2015 Last reviewed on

Question : can ibuprofen cause a false positive on a drug screen, can acetaminophen cause a false positive on a drug screen

Answered by Dr. Dr. Rovena (29 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
yes,ibuprofen can cause false positive results.

Detailed Answer:
Hello.

Welcome to Healthcare Magic.

There are some medications that can cross-react with immunoassays and cause false-positives.Ibuprofen is one of them and can cause false positives on a urine drug screen test ,mostly for Cannabinoids, Barbiturates,Methadone, Phencyclidine.
Acetaminophen is not known to interfere with any drug test.

Hope it helps.
Let me know if you have any other question or need any clarification.I would be happy to help.

Kind regards,
Dr.Rovena Murati

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar