Vistaril

Nurses Recovery

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Hi. Have any of you had Vistaril cause a false positive urine screen?

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No, but I wasn't very interested in Vistaril either, so.

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Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).

Urine drug screens done by monitoring do include tests for Benadryl an antihistamine commonly given for anxiety and insomnia. In fact most monitoring contracts expressly prohibit it's use. Since Vistaril is a similar antihistamine it would stand that it might "pop" positive on a urine drug screen. Still if you have a prescription and have informed your monitoring agency and received ok to take it, it should not be a problem. Incidentally I just looked it up and while the widow of greatest effect is approximately 2 hours the half-life is 20 hours so yes it can show up in a urine sample.

We give a lot of Vistaril in the psych hospital - for people habituated to drugs like opioids and benzo's it's effect is little more than a placebo. It does work great with our adolescents with anxiety disorders who have not graduated to the afore-mentioned opioids and benzos.

Hppy

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Specializes in ED RN and Case Manager.

With the tests administered by our state monitoring programs, even if Vistaril caused a false positive on the first immunoassay screen, the GC/MS testing should correctly identify the specific medication. As long as you have an approved prescription already on file with the MS BON, you should be fine.

Just looking online, I see that Vistaril may trigger a false positive for TCAs on the initial screen.

I did take Benadryl when I was in monitoring (with an RX on file, approved by the KARE program). I knew ahead of time that it could potentially cause a false positive for both Methadone & PCP. It never happened to me but I HAVE seen it happen twice over the past 5-6 years at the hospital where I’m a case manager. The cases were similar- elderly nursing home patients presenting with AMS. Rapid UDSs were ordered with the routine AMS work-up & both immunoassays were + for PCP. In both cases, the attending physicians elected to send the UDSs out for further GC/MS testing & the culprit appeared to be Benadryl each time. The first time I saw it, I was shocked to see an 80+ year-old with a +PCP test. By the 2nd time- I was seasoned in the KARE program & knew there was a myriad of possibilities regarding immunoassays without confirmatory testing.

Regardless, I was thankful that it didn’t happen to me. Although GC/MS would have cleared me, that would have been a looong week, with sleepless nights, waiting on the confirmatory test! It’s crazy how much we worry even when we KNOW that we’re compliant.

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Yeah I’ve probably taken 100 tests in the last several years or so. I’m very very careful about what I eat and drink but I’m always paranoid about a false positive. It hasn’t happened and I probably only got a few to go but the stress is constant. I can’t wait to get this out of my life. It’s almost impossible to prove a negative. I can’t prove that I don’t kill stray cats but I would never and don’t. I feel a false positive would kinda put you in the same position

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Benadryl. It came back as methadone.

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I had a RX for a Vistaril and My case manager told me I couldn’t take it.

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Specializes in Med/Surg; Case Management; LTC.
On 7/8/2020 at 4:55 PM, jnks said:

I had a RX for a Vistaril and My case manager told me I couldn’t take it.

WOW! that is horrible. Just because we have a drug or alcohol history does not mean we are not human. I have horrible eczema and itchy skin that the only thing b that calms it enough to sleep is Benedryl. I have a script.b

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Specializes in Med/Surg; Case Management; LTC.
On 7/8/2020 at 4:55 PM, jnks said:

I had a RX for a Vistaril and My case manager told me I couldn’t take it.

Also what if you had surgery or had to take something like narcs because of cancer are we supposed to suffer in pain or in my case bleeding skin from scratching all night? My case manager knows I am on Benedryl and its okay. So sorry for you.

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Obviously, surgery is an exception to the rule. It does really suck though. Just because we can’t take things routinely, even with a RX, doesn’t mean there aren’t exceptions, like surgery or an emergency. You can take narcs etc as prescribed in those situations within Diversion’s guidelines (here in CA that means notifying your CM ASAP, notifying the prescriber that you are on monitoring, documenting with the Dr the disposal of any leftover meds and passing clean for 2 random drug screens after finishing the meds before being allowed to return to work).

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