Expert: Dr Alan Galbraith - 3/30/2009

Question
my 82 yr old mom takes percet for back pain.  today when she went to her pain doctor the urine test they took showed methadone in her system.  How can this be?

Answer
Dear Jean

Percocet contains oxycodone which has a similar action to methadone but is chemically dissimilar so should not confuse the issue. In the US drug analyses are carried out by many disreputable companies out to make a quick buck and false positives are extremely common. I really wonder why at your mother's age they were doing such a test anyway, to me it is an infringement of one's rights and is completely unnecessary. I would be telling her doctor all this. All the experts in this category on this site see many similar questions and are in agreement that something should be done about this completely unnecessary surveillance particularly when false positives are so common. I think I should be telling all my clients with such questions to write to Michael Moore - he is probably aware of this state of affairs anyway.

Regards

Alan Galbraith