Trazodone is a popular antidepressant, often prescribed as Desyrel, Oleptro, and Trazodone D. As the 21st most-prescribed drug in the United States, it’s also extremely common, with over 5 million people taking out prescriptions. The drug is used as an antidepressant to treat depression and anxiety. However, it’s also a sedative, used off-label for alcohol dependance, pain, OCD, and schizophrenia. And, it’s occasionally used as a recreational drug, primarily by people with an existing trazodone dependence.
In addition, many people who take the drug test as positive for amphetamine usage, which means you may be very interested to know how long the antidepressant stays in your system.
Trazodone is a serotonin agonist and reuptake inhibitor (SARI) used as an antidepressant. The drug affects serotonin (5-hydroxtryptamine) by preventing your brain from absorbing the chemical as quickly – meaning that you have more of it in the brain. This can help to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression in people with low levels of serotonin in the brain. It can also cause a light sedative effect, especially in individuals without those problems.
Trazodone is unique as a SARI class drug in that it exhibits properties of SSRI antidepressants as well. However, the side effects are different, and trazadone is more sedative. This means it’s sometimes used as an off-label sleeping aid – especially for people who can’t have traditional sleeping pills.
Trazodone has a half-life of 5-13 hours, which means that the amount in your blood drops by 50% every 5-15 hours. It takes an average of 5.5 half-life periods to eliminate any drug from your system so that it doesn’t show up in a drug test or blood test. This means that, on a single dose of trazodone, you can expect the drug to be out of your system in 28-65 hours.
However, that becomes complicated if you start taking more of a drug. For example, if your body processes a single dose of Trazodone in 65 hours, you’d be clean in just under 3 days.
On the other hand if you take a new dose every 24 hours, you compound the problem. You’ll still process trazodone at the same rate – but there will be more of it in your system after 3 days, meaning it could still be detectable.
This compounds no matter how many doses you take, eventually reaching a plateau of maximum blood content of trazodone, based on your metabolic rate.
In addition, it’s very likely that your actual metabolization of trazodone is closer to 5 hours than 13, unless you’re taking a large dose.
The largest factor affecting trazodone metabolization is your metabolism. However, individual genetic factors will also impact how your body interacts with the drug. And, different factors like height, age, weight, and sex will impact metabolism.
Muscle Mass – Muscle mass typically results in a higher metabolism, meaning you’ll process drugs like trazodone more quickly. However, it’s not exact and you can’t speed up processing a drug by X amount by gaining Y pounds of muscle.
Body Fat – Body fat stores chemicals and energy for later use. This includes drugs like trazodone. People with higher body fat content might find that drugs like Trazodone stay in their system for up to twice as long as someone who is very lean.
Age – Metabolism typically peaks at around age 25 for most people. The older you are, the longer drugs stay in your system. However, children under the age of 14 may find that they have the same issue.
Sex – Sexual hormones like estrogen and testosterone directly impact metabolism. For this reason, persons with higher levels of testosterone are more likely to process drugs like trazodone quickly.
Genetics – Different people react differently to drugs. This means you could have genetic responses to the drug that impact how you react to it.
Essentially, there are a lot of factors that impact whether you process trazodone at the top or bottom of the half-life scale.
If you’re about to take a drug test, it’s important to discuss your history of drug use with the tester. For example, if you have a prescription for Trazodone, the clinic should make a note. Trazodone has a long history of creating false positives for amphetamine usage, which means you’ll likely get a nasty surprise when your drug test results come back if you don’t disclose. However, if you do have a positive amphetamine test and you’re taking Trazodone, you’re legally allowed to ask your employer or school for a retest using urine or hair analysis. This will give the clinic a longer view into your drug usage and will allow them to test again to see if the samples are Trazodone and not amphetamines.
However, if you have a positive test for trazodone and no trazodone prescription, you’re still breaking the law. The drug is a schedule V drug, meaning you need a prescription to get it. While it has a low potential for abuse, the risk is still there, and it does cause dependence. This means it is illegal to use trazodone outside of a prescription – and your employer can choose to fire you over it.
If you or a loved one is struggling with Trazodone, there is help. This prescription medication can be addictive and harmful, especially if combined with other drugs or alcohol. A professional rehab clinic can help you detox from Trazodone safely. That typically includes up to 2 weeks of detox support to prevent withdrawal side-effects. From there, you can move into therapy to treat the underlying problems behind addiction, so you can learn the tools to recover, to manage depression and anxiety, and to get your life back.
Asana Recovery is located in Orange County, California. and offers detox, residential, and outpatient addiction treatment services in our modern and comfortable addiction treatment facilities. Please contact us today to speak with one of our experienced addiction treatment team if you have any questions about our programs.
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