Codeine – The question we have all been asking
How long does it actually stay in my system?
Codeine, a compound of the opioid family, is a prescription drug and thus a controlled substance. It is commercially used to treat mild to moderate pain and a chronic cough reliever. To know how long codeine actually stays in your system is good to know for many reasons. As with many other medicines, codeine can be a blessing and a curse at the same time. When used in an improper manner or otherwise than instructed by your doctor or pharmacist, it can become a lethal substance. Seeking help from professionals when your consumption becomes troubling is nothing bad. Quite the opposite is the fact: it’s good for you and the people around you. As an opioid, codeine can cause some severe withdrawal symptoms which are hard to endure for its users. Professional help can get you the much needed guidance to become clean in the easiest and safest way possible.
How your body eliminates codeine
Once consumed, codeine reaches the liver where it is metabolized. It acts as a full agonist at the opioid receptors in our body and possesses a half-life anywhere between 2 to 4 hours. This means that after approximately 3 hours of ingestion, only half of the remaining active compound is still available.
This leads us to another fact: If the half-life of this substance is so short, how long does it take till it’s no longer in my system? The answer: Within the first 24 hours, there is only 10% left of the codeine once consumed. The other percentile was eliminated by your kidneys through your urinary system. Nevertheless, there are still traces of consumption in your bloodstream and many, if not all, drug tests could end up with a positive result.
Urinary system – How long is it traceable?
We have talked about how codeine is excreted via your urinary system and that almost 90% of it has already exited your body within the first 2 to 4 hours. This question, therefore, isn’t that difficult to answer. Codeine will show up on a urinary drug test within the first hours after consumption. To get a positive test via this route, it would take incredibly high doses of codeine to be detected after one day (24 hours).
Codeine – What is it?
As previously mentioned, codeine is a prescription pharmaceutical used in the treatment for chronic cough and pain relief. It is available in many different forms, such as tablets and syrup.
It is part of the opioid family and thus heavily restricted in its sales. Just like morphine, heroin, meperidine, methadone and fentanyl.
Codeine has a wide variety of effects:
- Analgesia
- Sedation
- Vasodilation
- Cough suppression
- Nausea and vomiting
- Lacrimation
- Yawning
Codeine abuse
Codeine is a widely used opioid for common complaints from patients, such as strong and irritating cough and mild to moderate pain. Thus, this drug is easier to obtain than other formulations. Nevertheless, as it is an opioid, it can create a dependency very quickly in its users. That’s how most people get hooked on. The majority get a prescription from a doctor for a certain condition and start taking it too often or at higher than recommended dosages.
Factors that influence drug detection
When it comes to predicting if a drug test will show a positive result or not, there are a lot of variables one might have to factor in. It is not only dependent on how long a person has been consuming the substance or how high the dose was. Here are a few other factors with equal importance when it comes to eliminating the drug from your system.
- How much water you consume
- How much you have consumed (of the drug)
- For how long have you been taking the substance
- Other medical conditions present?
- Do you maintain a healthy lifestyle?
- Your basal metabolic rate
- Your age
- Your weight
Codeine is described as a safe drug. As long as you stick to the recommendations of your physician or pharmacist, you should be good to go. Nevertheless, you will still need to treat this substance with a certain precociousness since at high dosages it can make you addicted. Taking too much of this drug can cause some very unpleasant and especially unwanted side effects like:
- Addiction
- Nausea
- Pruritus
- Respiratory depression
- Constipation
- Miosis (contracted pupils)
- Tolerance build up
If you have the feeling you are getting addicted, it will be hard to predict if codeine is or will be traceable in your urine at a certain point in the near future. The diagnosis of a codeine addiction might be difficult because patients start taking the substance under the supervision of a professional. It’s when a person begins to consume it compulsively that an alarm should start ringing.
Getting help
There are a lot of facilities out there with excellent expertise and the willpower to help everyone out there who seeks help. Sure, the first step towards a better future is accepting that you have a problem, but there is nothing to be ashamed of. Everyone needs help from time to time and, especially in such circumstances, which are classified as a medical condition, it would not be strange or something out of the box to seek professional medical attention. Quite the opposite. It is strongly recommended.
Medical facilities help you get back on your feet and guide you through the process. There are a lot of programs out there, of which the most use “methadone”, a replacement drug therapy to fight the symptoms of abstinence and make it easier for you to get clean.
You can divide most programs into three general ones:
- Partial hospitalization
- Intensive outpatient program
- Aftercare program
You are not alone in this fight!
