Does Vicodin show up on drug testing for life insurance?

Answer 1

It depends on the drug screen, but it is likely that it will show up, since most modern drug screens include hydro- and oxycodone on the list In rare cases, there are special boxes which a doctor or whoever is responsible for authorizing/requiring a UA must check specifically, separate from the 'opioid/opiates' box on the form which is sent to the lab, because the test which is performed to detect the generic term 'opiates' is often designed to just detect the morphine-based metabolites from codeine, heroin, and morphine itself. Outside of that small lucky shot,I would expect hydrocodone to be detected using most modern drug testing/UA screens.

Hydrocodone (the active ingredient in the name brand "Vicodin") is a semi-synthetic opiate derivative. On older drug screens, sometimes users of hydrocodone (also known under the names of various manufacturers as Vicodin, (generic 'brands') Norco, Lortab, Lorcet, etc.) and/or oxycodone (OxyContin, Roxicet, Percocet, Oxycocet, OxyIR, etc.) would not be detected, because at the time, the lower-end drug screens were designed to detect metabolites of codeine, morphine, and heroin--codeine and morphine are present in the actual sap of the poppy flower, and heroin is simply a molecule of morphine that is prepared by using acetic anhydride (an acid very similar to vinegar) to create 'diacetylmorphine', which is Heroin's chemical name, and which crosses the blood-brain barrier much more quickly than morphine because of that slight chemical alteration. All three drugs (particularly heroin and morphine) produce very similar metabolites, while the metabolites of oxycodone and hydrocodone are similar, but distinctly different; thus, the loophole which, unless your lab is using an antiquated system or a very cheap test, had previously existed is likely to be closed, and it will most likely be detected in the sample that is submitted.

Oxycodone and hydrocodone are unique opioids, because they are derived from the naturally-occurring alkaloid named thebaine , and both the pharmacokinetics and different subjective experience of euphoria and/or analgesia caused by the medicine reflect the unique properties of thebaine as opposed to the other major alkaloids present in the sap of the poppy flower (the most major and relevant of which are: codeine, morphine, thebaine, and papaverine, which, incidentally is the alkaloid from which the drug 'Caverject' (a medicine which predates Viagra, and which is designed to treat erectile dysfunction in men by causing a powerful erection from rapid dilation of the local blood vessels after a small injection directly into the penis using a small needle). Therefore, technically, Caverject is also a semi-synthetic opiate derivative which differs in a similarly unique way as oxycodone and hydrocodone differ from the morphine/codeine-based family of drugs. However, whatever loopholes may have used to exist due to the unique way in which these drugs are metabolized in the body have been mostly closed now, because most doctors/probation officers/laboratories check for those two medicines specifically now that they are so widely used/"abused".

Therefore, if you use Vicodin and are not able to anticipate or prepare for a drug test/UA for which a doctor's note would do you no good, be careful to take your exact prescribed dose, abstain if necessary and/or taper over a short time, taking your current dosage and frequency of use into account and the length of time that you have until you are required to submit to the UA.

(Answer 2 - edited for grammar and minor content)

In a 10 panel drug test it may; if it tests for hydromorphone (a medicine which is also produced by pharmaceutical manufacturers, commonly known under the brand name Dilaudid), which is one of hydrocodone's active metabolites (though produced in very small quantities), because hydrocodone does not get broken down into morphine... which is what a true "opiate" (as opposed to "opioid") is... vicodin/hydrocodone metabolizes into hydromorphone and other unique metabolites which would only be ordered and detected if the person in question was administered/required to submit to an EXTENDED drug test...