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Blood Test Tracker

Urine Methadone Screen

A urine screen for methadone, an opioid medicine used for pain and opioid use disorder, or for EDDP, its main breakdown product.

AI-verified against cited sources. Awaiting expert reviewAlso called MTD, EDDPLOINC 19550-3

What it is

Methadone is a long-acting opioid. It is prescribed to treat opioid use disorder and for some kinds of pain. Some labs test for methadone itself, and others test for EDDP, the main product the body makes from it. Both are screens that read positive above a set cutoff. A standard opiate screen does not pick up methadone, so it needs its own test.

Why it matters

People in treatment programs are often tested to confirm that the prescribed medicine is being taken. Clinicians also check it when someone is not prescribed methadone. If you take methadone as prescribed, a positive result is usually expected. A negative can happen for reasons that are not about missed doses, such as timing, very dilute urine or the lab's cutoff, so it is best talked through with your prescriber.

If it’s high

A positive result means the screen found methadone or EDDP at or above the lab's cutoff. If you are prescribed methadone, this is the usual result. If you are not, other causes, including look-alike medicines, are worth checking with a clinician.

Common causes

  • Methadone prescribed for opioid use disorder or for pain
  • Methadone taken without a prescription
  • A false positive from a look-alike medicine; quetiapine and vortioxetine have been reported to do this on some assays
  • A lab or sample mix-up (rare)

What can help

  • Give your clinician or the lab a full list of your medicines and supplements
  • Ask whether a confirmation test (GC-MS or LC-MS/MS) was done or can be added, especially if the result was unexpected
  • Ask whether the lab tests for methadone, EDDP or both
  • Ask your clinician whether naloxone and overdose-prevention information make sense for you and the people you live with

What can affect your result

  • Whether the assay detects methadone, EDDP or both, and its cutoff
  • Time since the last dose and how regularly methadone is taken
  • How dilute the urine is
  • Look-alike medicines that react with the screen
  • Whether the screen was confirmed by a more exact test
  • Look-alike chemicals can cause a false positive. Published reports describe quetiapine and vortioxetine doing this on some methadone assays.
  • Some assays detect methadone itself and others detect EDDP, its main breakdown product, so two labs can answer differently.
  • Very dilute urine can push levels below the cutoff, so the result reads negative.
  • A standard opiate screen does not detect methadone.

Any time of day. Collection is sometimes supervised in treatment programs. Reflects recent dosing. Methadone is long-acting, so it can stay in the body longer than many drugs. How long a screen stays positive depends on the dose, how regularly it is taken and the person.

When to talk to a clinician

A screen result on its own is not an emergency. If you or someone near you has slow or shallow breathing, extreme sleepiness, or can't be woken, call 911 or your local emergency number right away.

Questions you could ask

  • If I am prescribed methadone, how should this result be read together with my treatment plan?
  • Was my sample sent for a confirmation test?
  • Could a medicine or supplement I take explain this result?
  • Does this test look for methadone, EDDP or both?

Questions people ask

I take methadone as prescribed, so why could my screen be negative?

Common reasons include the timing of your last dose, very dilute urine, or a lab cutoff that is higher than your level. An assay that looks only for EDDP, or only for methadone, can also give a different answer. Talk with your prescriber, who can order a more exact test if needed.

Can another medicine make a methadone screen positive?

It has been reported. Quetiapine and vortioxetine are examples. A confirmation test can sort out whether methadone is really present. Tell the person who ordered the test about every medicine you take.

Does a standard opiate test include methadone?

No. Methadone is not detected by a standard opiate screen, so it has its own test.

Show the science and sources

For clinicians and researchers

Methadone immunoassays read against a cutoff. FDA summaries show 300 ng/mL for the Randox Methadone assay and for the AssureTech methadone strip. A published clinical panel used 200 ng/mL. EDDP assays are also cleared, for example the DRI Methadone Metabolite assay at 100 and 300 ng/mL, and the FDA summary states that a methadone metabolite test cannot distinguish abused drugs from certain prescribed medications. Methadone is not on the HHS federal workplace urine panel. The CDC 2022 opioid guideline notes that opiate immunoassays do not detect synthetic opioids such as fentanyl or methadone, and that patients prescribed methadone require specific testing for it. False positives are reported with quetiapine (several case reports) and vortioxetine, which crossed over on the Roche KIMS Methadone II assay: seven patients screened positive while GC-MS and two other immunoassays were negative. Confirmation is by GC-MS or LC-MS/MS.

LOINC 19550-3 (primary), 42251-9, 93495-0, 113817-1, 114319-7, 3773-9, 16199-2, 41858-2. Specimen: urine.

Sources

  1. CDC Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain, United States, 2022, MMWR Recommendations and Reports (CDC) (2022)
  2. Mandatory Guidelines for Federal Workplace Drug Testing Programs: Authorized Testing Panels (91 FR 12308), HHS / SAMHSA, via the Federal Register (2026)
  3. DRI Methadone Metabolite (100/300) Assay (510(k) K081378), U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 510(k) review document (2009)
  4. Randox Methadone Assay (510(k) K092272), U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 510(k) review document (2010)
  5. AssureTech Buprenorphine and Methadone Tests (510(k) K152025), U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 510(k) review document (2015)
  6. Abnormal Urine Drug Screens in Pregnancy: Opportunity for Laboratory Stewardship, EJIFCC (2025)
  7. False-positive methadone drug screens during quetiapine treatment, Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (2010)
  8. Vortioxetine use may cause false positive immunoassay results for urine methadone, Clinica Chimica Acta (2019)
  9. False-positive interferences of common urine drug screen immunoassays: a review, Journal of Analytical Toxicology (2014)
  10. Drug Testing (MedlinePlus Medical Test), MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine

AI-verified against cited sources. Awaiting expert review. Last reviewed 2026-10-03. How we build and check these pages.

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