How Long Does Fentanyl Stay in Your System?

Drugs or medications are specifically designed to treat a condition, but they pose certain risks and lasting damage. They can stay in your system long after their effects have worn off. Today, we will look into one such drug - a synthetic opioid known as fentanyl. Fentanyl is a man-made opioid designed to be a painkiller. However, it has great potential for misuse and can have serious side effects.

Knowing how long fentanyl stays in your system is crucial to properly managing fentanyl use, monitoring its side effects and dangers, and preventing misuse. Typically, fentanyl stays in your system anywhere between 24 and 72 hours. However, depending on the drug testing methods, it can be detected for even longer.

What Is Fentanyl and Why Is It So Dangerous?

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid - it is created in a lab and is designed to be a potent painkiller. It is prescribed by doctors to treat severe, chronic pain, like cancer-related pain and post-surgical pain. The reason doctors use it to treat severe pain is that it binds to the opioid receptors in the brain and alters how one perceives pain.

On the other hand, when fentanyl is misused or taken in ways other than prescribed, it becomes a highly dangerous medication. Fentanyl is estimated to be 100 times stronger than morphine, which means even a small dose of the drug can lead to the risk of abuse, dependence, and fentanyl use disorder. In extreme cases, it can even lead to overdose and death. As per The Lancet, more than 100,000 people die every year because of opioids like fentanyl, making it a mounting public health concern [3].

Understanding Fentanyl's Half-Life

Fentanyl’s half-life refers to the time taken by your body to eliminate half of the drug. While this depends on the mode of administration and other factors, it can take 3-7 hours on average. Moreover, it takes a number of half-lives before the drug is entirely eliminated by your system. We shall look into it in a bit more detail here:

• Intravenous: When fentanyl is injected, its half-life varies between 2-4 hours, depending on the dosage.
• Transmucosal: When fentanyl is taken from the nose or mouth, it has a half-life of 5 to 14 hours.
• Transdermal: When fentanyl is used as a transdermal patch, it has a half-life of nearly 17 hours.

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Fentanyl Drug Testing: How Long Is It Detectable?

When you consume fentanyl, your body works to break it down. This process leaves traces of fentanyl’s metabolites in your system, and drug tests mainly detect these metabolites to test for the presence of fentanyl in your body. Depending on the drug test, fentanyl can have a shorter or longer detection window.

Urine Tests:

Urine tests can detect fentanyl for anywhere between 24-72 hours in your body. As these tests are easy to administer and cost-effective, they are the most commonly used tests to detect fentanyl in your system.

Blood Tests:

Blood tests can detect fentanyl up to 12 hours after the last dose. As blood tests are slightly invasive, they are not as commonly used as urine tests.

Hair Tests:

Hair tests have the longest detection window for fentanyl in your system. They can detect the drug for 90 days after the last dose. However, as hair tests are expensive and time-consuming, they are not as frequently used.

Factors That Affect How Long Fentanyl Stays in Your Body

How long fentanyl stays in your body depends on several factors - mainly centering on half-life. But the half-life of fentanyl in itself can also depend on the other factors, such as:

Length of Use:

The longer you use fentanyl, the longer it takes for your body to eliminate the drug. For instance, among chronic users, fentanyl can be detected in the urine for up to 4 weeks.

Method of Ingestion:

Depending on the method of ingestion - whether you inject it, take it via your nose/mouth, or use a transdermal patch- it stays in your body for longer.

Body Weight and Metabolism:

Metabolism determines how quickly the drug is broken down and eliminated from your body. Faster metabolism rates lead to quicker elimination. However, metabolism depends on factors like body weight, physical activity, and age. So, it is always important to maintain a healthy body weight and physical activity levels.

Liver and Kidney Function:

The liver and kidneys are responsible for the metabolism and excretion of fentanyl from the system. Pre-existing liver or kidney conditions can lead to longer elimination times.

Age and Overall Health:

Age and overall health affect the elimination of fentanyl via metabolism. So, it can take a longer time for older persons to eliminate the drug from their system.

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What Are the Risks and Side Effects of Fentanyl?

When fentanyl is taken as per the doctor’s prescription, it is majorly safe. However, when it is misused, it can lead to numerous risks and side effects, such as:

• Anxiety
• Agitation
• Depression
• Sleep troubles
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Changes in blood pressure and heart rate
• Tolerance, which means you need more and more of the drug to achieve the desired effect.
• Dependence, which means your mind and body cannot function without the presence of the drug.
• Withdrawal symptoms, which are highly unpleasant symptoms you experience when you reduce the intake or stop taking fentanyl abruptly.
• Overdose and death.

Fentanyl Withdrawal: What to Expect?

When a person becomes tolerant and dependent on fentanyl, they can often experience fentanyl withdrawal symptoms when they reduce its intake or stop taking it entirely. This is why quitting fentanyl on your own can be very difficult. The fentanyl withdrawal symptoms can be divided into physical and psychological symptoms.

Physical Withdrawal Symptoms:

• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Loss of appetite
• Body pain
• Involuntary body movements
• High blood pressure
• Increased heart rate.

Psychological Withdrawal Symptoms:

• Strong cravings and urges to use fentanyl
• Anxiety
• Restlessness
• Depression
• Mood swings.

Importance of Medical Detox:

Given that fentanyl can give rise to unpleasant withdrawal symptoms, it can feel like the only option is to use more fentanyl. This is why quitting the drug on your own can become very difficult and often leads to a relapse. Hence, medical detoxification (detox) is a safer option to choose when you decide to recover from fentanyl use.

In medical detox, fentanyl levels are gradually tapered off from your body under safe and supervised conditions to reduce and manage cravings and withdrawal symptoms. You can undergo detox in both residential and outpatient settings, depending on the severity of fentanyl use.

Safe Recovery from Fentanyl Addiction

While detox safely removes fentanyl from your body, it does not treat the underlying conditions that lead to fentanyl use in the first place. Therefore, medication-assisted treatment (MAT) is the first line of treatment for fentanyl addiction. It uses both medication management and psychotherapy for lasting outcomes and recovery.

Commonly, medications like buprenorphine, methadone, or naltrexone are used to reduce cravings and other fentanyl-related symptoms to uplift the quality of your life.

Psychotherapy, meanwhile, seeks to motivate you toward overcoming fentanyl use and also changes the underlying thinking patterns leading to fentanyl use. Typically, psychotherapeutic interventions like motivational interviewing, cognitive behavioral therapy, and contingency management are used to treat fentanyl use. Furthermore, attending 12-step recovery meetings like Narcotics Anonymous (NA) can enable ongoing care and recovery, laying the strong foundation and community you need for a sober, brighter tomorrow.

How Design For Recovery Can Help You Stay Sober?

If you have taken the decision to recover from fentanyl use, we commend you for the most powerful decision you might make in your life. During this time, you need integrated care options to make your recovery achievable and enduring. Keeping this in mind, Design For Recovery provides leading sober living facilities for young men recovering from fentanyl use. We provide a structured environment, clinical support, and an understanding community specifically tailored to your needs and goals.