How Long Does Percoset Remain In The System?

Posted on Sun, 26 Oct 2014

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

Sun, 26 Oct 2014 Answered on

Wed, 19 Nov 2014 Last reviewed on

Question : I am scheduled for lower back surgery in a month from now and am currently with a pain management clinic which monitors and perscribes my percoset medication. I am on a strict regimam of 5/325 mg percoset, one tablet 6 times a day.
Last week I failed my drug test and I can't understand why. I don't take any other drugs and I don't drink alcohol. I normally stay religious to this regiman, but in the past month I had to move from my office and had to take two extra pills a day for several days, which left me with no pills for two days before my monthly testing. Would not taking them for one or two days before my test make me fail?
Another possible reason for failing that I can think of is, several days before my testing I just started a heavy regiman of numerous vitamin suupliments for hair loss. Could these suppliments had messed up my reading on the test?
They told me that failing my urine test raised suspician that I might be giving away or selling my meds to other people and not taking them myself, which is totally out of the question. I'm in extreme pain and need every dose of this medication that I'm allowed.

Answered by Dr. Dr. Erion Spaho (49 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Percoset has a short half life.

Detailed Answer:
Hi,
I had gone through your question and understand your concerns.

Percoset has a short half plasmatic life ( about 3.2 hours) so levels of Percoset in the blood are undetectable after about a day if you stop it. So if you didn't take Percoset for two days, it is normal not to detect its metabolites in urine.

Hope this answers your question. If you have additional questions or follow up questions then please do not hesitate in writing to us. I will be happy to answer your questions.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Vaishalee Punj

Follow up: Dr. Dr. Erion Spaho (27 minutes later)

Dear Doctor;
Thank you so much for your expert opinion to my question about percoset.
One other question I have pertaining to this matter is:
Is it also possible that an extensive conglomeration of vitamin suppliments that I just began taking contribute in any way to my failing my pain management drug test, making my medication become undetected?
Again, you are a HUGE HELP!
I've been losing sleep over this ever since I failed the test several days ago.
Because of this, it was a threat that they would discontinue perscribing my pain medication all together. My back pain is so untollerable without the meds that I
wouldn't know what to do. I have another month before my surgery and it'd be
extremely untollerable.
I'll look forward to your answer to my question about the vitamin suppliments.
Thank you again- Sincerely- Bodine XXXXXXX
YYYY@YYYY 612-916-4206

Answered by Dr. Dr. Erion Spaho (27 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Vitamin supplements may give false-positive result

Detailed Answer:
Hi and thanks for asking again. About your question vitamin supplements may give a false-positive result of test, that is if you use any vitamin supplement, your drug screening of urine may result positive ( false). As far as I have knowledge, there is no evidence that vitamin supplements may show a false-negative result in screening urine for drugs. Again, if you didn't use Percocet for 2 or 3 days, then the screening has to be negative. Hope this answers your question.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Raju A.T