I made this post on the addictions board here at Allnurses, but find it relevant here too.
This phenomenon may be we'll documented in the literature, or well known among you pros, but I'm just running into this.
I've been told that patients taking HIV meds and are also on a methadone program may get a false negative on the methadone when we test them.
I work on a Behavioral Health unit and had patient insist was on methadone but didn't test pos for it. The clinic confirmed patient does indeed take methadone and we found out patients can get false negatives that are on HIV drugs.
I don't know if it's all HIV drugs or just certain ones. I know Atripla for sure involved.
adnrnstudent, ASN, RN
353 Posts
I made this post on the addictions board here at Allnurses, but find it relevant here too.
This phenomenon may be we'll documented in the literature, or well known among you pros, but I'm just running into this.
I've been told that patients taking HIV meds and are also on a methadone program may get a false negative on the methadone when we test them.
I work on a Behavioral Health unit and had patient insist was on methadone but didn't test pos for it. The clinic confirmed patient does indeed take methadone and we found out patients can get false negatives that are on HIV drugs.
I don't know if it's all HIV drugs or just certain ones. I know Atripla for sure involved.
Any comments?