Mindy asked
I test positive for gabapentin when I haven’t taking them in months and I was wondering what would cause a false positive for gabapentin it was a urine test I also took a blood test same one and it was negitive for gabapentin but my urine was positive what can I do to prove I am not taking this medicine
Answer
It's very uncommon (and unlikely) to get a false positive test result for gabapentin. Gabapentin is not a controlled or illicit substance and is not included on standard urinalysis drug tests. However, if you have been specifically tested for gabapentin, as such tests do exist, it's certainly possible for you to get a false-positive, it just isn't likely and there aren't any reported over the counter medications that are known to increase the likelihood of false positives.
Testing Positive For Gabapentin
Although drug testing for gabapentin isn't common, tests do exist and gabapentin does have some potential for abuse, even though it is not a controlled substance. We wrote an article discussing potential abuse of gabapentin here: Can Gabapentin Make You High?
Not only can gabapentin cause a mild euphoria on its own, it has been used to increase the "high" felt from opioid abuse. Therefore, if your doctor suspects misuse, they may order a gabapentin drug test.
Most sources which discuss common false-positives on drug tests, state that gabapentin is unlikely to cause false-positives for other drugs and it is very uncommon for other drugs to be responsible for false-positives for gabapentin. Nevertheless, false-positives are always possible, just based on how urine screenings work. We wrote about this here: What Causes False Positives On Drug Tests?
How Long Does Gabapentin Last In Your Body?
Gabapentin is cleared from the body relatively quickly. It has a short half-life of 5-7 hours and is generally detectable on a urine test for no more than 48 hours (2 days). However, gabapentin is extensively cleared by the kidneys and if you have any sort of renal dysfunction, the half-life can be prolonged to over 100 hours, making the drug detectable for 20 to 30 days!
What To Do If You Have A False-Positive For Gabapentin
If you tested positive for gabapentin but want to dispute the results, you can request another test as it would be extremely uncommon to test positive (falsely) again. Alternatively, you could request a far more accurate type of drug test, such as a chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) test.
Those tests can accurately determine the exact molecule in a sample, and don't rely on chemical reactions that standard urinalysis tests use.
