butalbital and urinalysis

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Hey everyone,

I have a drug screen for a new job coming up. I don't usually get headaches, but I had a BAD one recently. My mother gave me one of her migraine pills (Fiorcet), which contained butalbital. I didn't even think twice about it. Now I am concerned that because it is a barbiturate, it will show on my drug screen.

I've searched the threads and internet, and have found that at most it can be detected in the urine for 3 weeks. It will be 22 days between taking the 1 pill and my urinalysis. I do not have a Rx for this medication.

Should I be worried?

FWIW, I do have a Rx for Ativan, which I have written down. I just don't want that to look bad on me on top of the HA medication.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Geri, LTC, Tele,.

Can you ask your MD for a prescription for the Fiorcet? That way, it will be legal for you to have taken it.

Drink a lot of water prior to your UA.

And be very careful when taking a med that's not prescribed to you in the future. As nurses, our livelihood requires that we are held to a higher standard.

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Get a drug test from Walgreens

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Get a drug test from Walgreens

I was thinking about this, but wasn't sure how accurate they are. Also going to try the first suggestion of getting an Rx. ty!

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I was thinking about this, but wasn't sure how accurate they are. Also going to try the first suggestion of getting an Rx. ty!

They are pretty accurate. My friend was in a similar situation and she used it and it was reliable

Funny thing is I take fiorinal on a daily basis for lupus related muscle and joint pain and daily headaches.. Which is why this caught my eye. I don't know how easy it is to get a script but It was recommended by my doc cause I'm allergic to everything but aspirin. If you tell them you get bad migraines and want to try it, they may listen

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Don't try to outwit a drug screen by drinking lots of water. If your urine shows up as overly diluted, they will flag your test. You may have to re-take it. Since you only took the one pill, you'd probably be okay, but you don't want to draw attention to yourself by having a dilute result. This just makes you look bad.

You took one pill. You are probably going to be fine. But don't do that in the future, because it is illegal and could get you into trouble.

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Specializes in Urology, HH, med/Surg.

Butalbital does show up as a barbiturate on UDS, but if you took only one, it will probably be out of your system in 3-5 days.

I agree with getting an otc drug test at walgreens (or wherever) just make sure it's one that tests for barbiturates. They are pretty accurate- I've had drug tests for jobs that are those type.

And definitely be more cautious in future! I know sometimes it seems like, "what can it hurt?"- but it can truly mess up your career & life for a long time!!

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Thanks everyone for the replies! I am probably just being paranoid, but I DO NOT want to risk it.

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