Can taking Trazodone, Gabapentin and Duloxetine create a false positive for Lorazepam?

Posted on Tue, 22 May 2018

Question: Hi my name is XXXXXXX I take trazodone, gabapentin and duloxetine HCL DR, with oxycodon-acetaminophen7.5-325 witch I have to drug test for. I was just told my test came back showing I have taken lorazepam. this is not the first time for this either. now after years of treatment they are talking about stop writing the oxycodon. I have never taken lorazepam before or really knew what it was until now. Im a liver transplant patient with back and bone issues. I do take other meds. but the first three mentioned make me question if one or two of them could be causing the false positives. at first she believed me but its getting old and I understand her position. Thank you for your time. Please Help XXXXXXX

Answered by Dr. Bonnie Berger-Durnbaugh (3 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Information

Detailed Answer:
Hello XXXXXXX

With increased urine testing, these false positives are becoming an increasing problem, because the basic test is not that accurate as you see.

I looked up several scientific articles on what can cause a false positive urine screen for benzodiazepines. Benzodiazepines are the class of medication that lorazepam is in.

The only thing that came up repeatedly as giving a false positive was the SSRI antidepressant sertraline, and also a particular NSAId (similar to ibuprofen).

So what to do: If the urine screen is inaccurate, the next step would be to get the more accurate GC-MS test done. I recommend you ask them to do this.

I'm sorry I couldn't pin point one of your medications with a research article to take to your doctor to back it up, but I can say that standard urine screens have their limitations and the next step is GC-MS.

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