How Long Does Embeda Stay In Your System?

Embeda is a drug combination that includes the opioid morphine as well as something called naltrexone. Morphine is a pain reliever, and opioids like it are also called narcotics. Morphine binds to opioid receptors and reduces how pain signals are sent and felt. Despite the therapeutic benefits of morphine, there are risks including misuse, addiction, and dependence. That’s why the naltrexone is included in Embeda. Naltrexone is an opioid antagonist. When someone takes Embeda as prescribed, the naltrexone isn’t absorbed by their gastrointestinal system and has no effects. When someone tries to misuse Embeda by crushing it to snort or inject the morphine all at once, the naltrexone can become effective. Naltrexone can block the euphoric high of the morphine and can, in some cases, cause sudden withdrawal in opioid-dependent people. Embeda is supposed to only be prescribed for severe long-term pain relief in patients who aren’t able to take other medications or who don’t receive relief from them. Embeda is an around-the-clock medication, and it’s usually prescribed to be taken every 24 hours, not as-needed. The higher dosages of the medication are intended only for people who already have an opioid tolerance.

While Embeda is a unique formulation of morphine that’s designed to deter misuse and lower the potential for addiction and overdose, it is still regulated as a Schedule II controlled substance in the U.S. because it contains morphine. Most opioid prescription drugs are Schedule II in the U.S. This means opioids like morphine are believed to carry a high risk of severe psychological and physical dependence. Using a Schedule II controlled substance without a prescription is illegal. There are tight regulations regarding how controlled substances can be not only used but also prescribed and dispensed.

Morphine is a drug that’s often used to treat very severe and even end-of-life pain. Morphine is derived from the poppy plant, and it’s available in different forms such as the capsule Embeda, as well as tablets, syrups, injections and suppositories. Morphine is also frequently used before or after surgery to relieve severe pain. Roxanol is a brand-name version of morphine sometimes diverted from medical use and misused. Avinza is a long-acting form of morphine similar to Embeda but without the addition of naltrexone. Other brand-name morphine drugs include MS-Contin, RMS and Kadian.

When someone takes Embeda, it binds to opioid receptors. Opioid receptor sites are located throughout the body including in the brain, spinal cord and gastrointestinal tract. When the opioid sites are occupied by morphine, which is the active ingredient in Embeda, it changes how pain signals are sent from the body to the brain. Embeda and other opioids also cause a general slowdown of the central nervous system. The central nervous system controls vital bodily functions, such as breathing and heart rate. The slowdown of the central nervous system is one reason it’s so important to take Embeda only as prescribed and follow dosage instructions carefully. Side effects of Embeda can include drowsiness, nausea and vomiting, dizziness and sedation.

The elimination half-life of a drug refers to how long it takes 50 percent of the drug to be removed from the system of an individual. The half-life of Embeda’s active ingredient, morphine, is longer than it would be an immediate-release drug since it remains active for around 24 hours. An extended-release version of a drug controls a dosage that’s distributed in the system over a certain amount of time. The half-life of morphine administered intravenously as an example is two hours. The half-life of the morphine in Embeda is 29 hours. It typically takes five half-lives for a drug to be fully eliminated from the system. This means it could take, on average, 145 hours for a dose of Embeda to fully leave the system of an individual.

While the average estimated half-life of Embeda is 29 hours, a lot of factors play a role in the specifics of how long it stays in the system of an individual. First, if someone misuses Embeda by crushing or breaking the capsule to get the full effects of the morphine all at once, it can cause it to have a shorter half-life. Other relevant factors that influence how long Embeda stays in your system include:

• Age: Older people tend to have longer drug elimination times than younger people.
• Metabolism: Someone who has a fast metabolism will usually excrete drugs from their systems faster than someone with a slower metabolism.
• Health and hepatic function: Someone’s overall health and hepatic function can speed up or slow down the elimination time of a drug like Embeda.
• Hydration: Most substances like Embeda are excreted in urine, so hydration can help a drug leave the system faster.

Other factors that influence how long Embeda stays in your system can include the dosage used, whether any other substances were used, and body weight and body fat percentage.

Morphine can show up on a standard drug screening in some cases. Urine testing is often the preferred method to screen for drugs. A dose of Embeda could show up in the urine for around a week because of the long half-life of the drug. In a hair test, most drugs will show up for up to 90 days. Blood tests tend to have the shortest detection window, and the use of Embeda could show up for a few days after it was used, although possibly less.

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