How Long Do Opioids Stay In Your System?

How Long Do Opioids Stay In The Body?

Opioids may remain in the body for periods ranging from a few hours to 90 days and are detectable through standard drug tests such as urine, blood, and hair tests.

In general, a urine sample can detect opioids from 24 hours after last use up to 7 days, depending on the type of opioid. Blood samples can detect opioids up to 24 hours after last use, and opioids may be detectable in hair samples for up to 90 days.

How Long Does It Take The Body To Process Opioids?

When opioids enter the body, they are absorbed into the bloodstream and cross the blood-brain barrier into the brain, where they bind to opioid receptors to give the desired effects of pain relief, euphoria, or sedation.

Opioids are primarily metabolized in the liver into active metabolites. Opioids that are taken orally are metabolized by the liver before they reach the bloodstream, but opioids that are taken in other forms (sublingual, transdermal, intravenous, or subcutaneous) go directly into the bloodstream before they are metabolized in the liver.

They are then excreted out of the body through urine, primarily via the kidneys. Methadone is an exception, as it is not eliminated by the kidneys but is excreted via bile into the feces.

This entire process can be influenced by your:

• Age
• Health
• Metabolism
• Hydration level
• Other medications you’re taking

Routes of administration also play an important role in how long opioids stay in the body. For example, the faster the opioid is absorbed, the faster it is metabolized and excreted from the body, and it generally has a smaller window of detectability on a drug test.

• The intravenous (IV) route is the fastest route of administration, absorption, and elimination.
• Oral and transdermal routes are considered slower because absorption occurs through the gut or skin, so opioids take longer to be eliminated from the body.

Another important factor that determines how long opioids stay in your system is the half-life of the opioid. The half-life is the time it takes for half the active ingredients in a drug to be eliminated from the body through metabolism and excretion by the liver and kidneys.

If a half-life is 2 hours, then after 2 hours, 50% of the drug will remain in the body, and after two half-lives (4 hours), 25% of the drug will remain in the body. It usually takes four to five half-lives to remove a drug’s active components from the body. There are three classifications of opioid half-life: long-acting, short-acting, and rapid-onset.

• Long-acting opioids: Opioids that are designed for slower release, which helps treat ongoing chronic pain that requires 24-hour management. They generally take 1-2 hours to work and stay in the body for 8-72 hours and include extended-release (ER) or controlled-release (CR) oxycodone, morphine, hydromorphone, and fentanyl patches.
• Short-acting opioids: Immediate release formulations that take around 30 minutes to one hour to work and are designed for acute pain, such as postoperative pain, and can be taken several times a day, with pain relief lasting up to 3-6 hours. Examples of short-acting opioids include immediate-release (IR) morphine, oxycodone, hydromorphone, and codeine.
• Rapid-acting opioids: Rapid-acting opioids are known for their quick absorption into the bloodstream and are used for unexpected breakthrough pain episodes. Rapid-acting opioids take about 5-15 minutes to work and generally last about one hour. Examples include transmucosal fentanyl products.

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Methods To Test For Opioids In Your System

Drug testing is most commonly a precaution employers take to ensure a prospective employee will be productive and reliable. Drug testing is also commonly used in workers’ compensation cases, parole, child custody disputes, competitive athletics, and in some other cases, such as during drug rehab programs.

The majority of drug tests don’t test for the drug itself. Instead, they look for the presence of metabolites, which are the leftovers created when your body metabolizes the drug. These molecules stick around for much longer than the actual drug, and drug tests can determine which drug was consumed by the metabolites left in your body.

Urine testing:  The most common type of drug testing that measures the metabolites that are filtered through the kidneys. Urine tests can detect opioids one day after use and up to 7 days after use.

Blood testing: Blood samples can detect opioids for 12-24 hours after last use.

Saliva testing: Has the shortest detection window and can detect opioids from only a few hours after use up to 48 hours after use.

Hair testing: Can detect opioids up to 90 days after use. The drug metabolite becomes trapped in the hair’s keratin protein structure after being absorbed from the bloodstream into the hair follicle, as it is surrounded by a dense bed of capillaries under the scalp.

Common Opioids Detectable Timeframe

It is important to note that buprenorphine, the primary ingredient in Suboxone, used to help people recover from opioid addiction, does not show up on standard urine drug tests. However, it can be ordered for specific drug tests. Even though it is a partial opioid agonist and binds to opioid receptors, it is structurally much different from opioids and therefore is not included in the standard drug screens.

Which Factors Determine How Opioids Are Processed?

The length of time opioids stay in the body depends on a variety of factors. The amount of drugs taken at once, the level of habitual use, the weight of the person tested, and the speed of metabolism can all affect the window of time when testing for opioids. For example, an elderly male with kidney disease will process codeine much differently than a young female without kidney disease.

The following are factors that determine how opioids are processed in the body:

• How much was taken
• The type of opioid taken
• Weight of the person
• Speed of metabolism
• The dose taken regularly
• The method of administration
• Presence of other drugs in the body
• Age
• Ethnicity
• Medical conditions affecting drug metabolism and elimination
• Gender

Detoxing from Opioids

Withdrawing from opioids is not life-threatening or dangerous; however, it can be uncomfortable and even painful.

It is highly recommended to undergo detox from opioids in an addiction treatment center where addiction professionals can offer medications to ease withdrawals and cravings in a supervised setting, decreasing the risk of relapse.

Depending on the type of opioid, withdrawal symptoms can begin as soon as 6-12 hours after the last dose of heroin or 1-3 days after the last dose of methadone.

Withdrawal symptoms usually peak around 2 to 4 days after you stop taking opioids and will usually resolve within 5 to 7 days. However, withdrawal symptoms for long-acting opioids, such as methadone, can last longer than a week.

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Find Opioid Addiction Treatment Today

If you’re struggling with opioid misuse or worried about an upcoming drug test, it may be time to consider how the adverse effects of opioid misuse are affecting your life.

Opioid addiction treatment can help you get your life back on track. If you or a loved one is struggling with addiction, contact a treatment provider or visit our rehab directory today to get started.