What Causes False Positive Reports Despite Of Not Taking Any Illegal Drugs?

Posted on Sat, 24 May 2014

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

Sat, 24 May 2014 Answered on

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 Last reviewed on

Question : I'm in a DWI Program and I'm showing levels not positives of Amphedimines in my urine. I don't take any illegal drugs or drink any alcohol for about one and half years. Ido take a list of meds. They are:Metoprolol Tartrate 10mg, Lisinopril 40mg, Potassium Chloride 10MEQ, Metformin HCL 500mg, Allopurinol 300mg, Hydrochlorothiazide 25mg, Amlodipine Besylate 10mg, Rosuvastatin CA 20mg and some over the counter stuff like fishoil 1000mg, Ibephroen 200mg, asprin 81mg .PLEASE HELP !!!!

Answered by Dr. Vaishalee Punj (18 hours later)

Brief Answer:
It is common

Detailed Answer:
Hi
Thanks for your query.

False positive reports are common when a person is taking other prescribed medicines. This mostly happens due to structural similarity between two medicines.

The usual cases of false positives are seen with following medicines:
ephedrine, ranitidine, cough and cold medicines, antidepressants, antipsychotics, . Ibuprofen is known to produce false positive results for opioids.

You need to check your medicines, if some medicine contains methamphetamine as an ingredient which may have tested positive for amphetamines.

Among the medicines listed by you, brufen or fish oil may be the culprit.

Hope it helps.
Dr Vaishalee

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