Exact Answer: 4 To 6 Hours
Oxycontin, or also known as oxycodone is an opioid drug derived from the poppy plant. The drug is majorly used to help relieve moderate to severe pain in adults who cannot be treated with any other pain medications. The reason behind that is because it binds with the mu-opioid receptor which blocks the feeling of pain. Oxycontin may be prescribed after an injury, or trauma, or major surgery. Moreover, it may also be prescribed by the doctor to treat other types of severe pain caused due to any reason.
How Long Does Oxycontin Stay In Your System?
On average, Oxycontin stays in the body for about 4 to 5 hours. However, even after the digestion of the compound, oxycontin can be identified in various parts of the body. The major parts of body or body secretions where Oxycontin can be identified are saliva, urine, and hair. Depending upon where one is trying to identify the presence of oxycontin, the time for how long it stays in the body differs.
Taking a rough estimation for all the factors, or the body organizations where Oxycontin can be determined, the time also differs. Oxycontin generals can last in the human body from a minimum of 4 hours to a maximum of 6 hours. However, depending upon many other factors, majorly the size of dosage of oxycontin consumed, the time can either increase or decrease. Moreover, Oxycontin can be determined in human saliva up to four days after the last dosage of oxycontin has been consumed.
Apart from the saliva, oxycontin can also be identified in the urine. Oxycontin can stay and get identified in the urine after about 3 to 4 days after taking the last dosage. Lastly, oxycontin can be identified in human hair as well. Moreover, the time duration for how long Oxycontin can be identified in the hair is the longest duration among all other body parts. The time duration for oxycontin to get identified in human hair is up to 90 days.
| Parts Of System | Time |
| Metabolic body | 4 to 6 hours |
| Saliva | 3 to 4 days |
| Urine | 3 to 4 days |
| Hair | 80 to 90 days |
Why Does Oxycontin Stay In Your System For That Long?
One way the major way which determines how long a drug will last in your system is to measure its half-life. In general, the half-life is the time it takes for half of the drug to be eliminated from the body.
Immediate-release formulations of oxycontin have an average half-life of around 3 to 3.2 hours. That is to say, it takes about 3 to 3.2 hours for an average person to eliminate half of the dosage of oxycontin. However, controlled or extended-release formulations of oxycontin have a longer half-life ranging from 4.5 hours to 5.6 hours, on average.
Moreover, it takes multiple half-lives for the body to fully eliminate a drug. Since everyone metabolizes medications differently, that means, every system has different metabolic rates, the half-life can vary from person to person. However, for most people, oxycontin will get fully cleared in the blood within about 24 hours. However, as mentioned earlier as well, it can still be detected in the saliva, urine, or hair even after the oxycontin is cleared in the system.
According to many scientific research and studies, the blood concentrations of oxycontin are 15% higher in the elderly, mainly over age 65, compared to younger adults. That is to say, it takes longer for elderly people to clear oxycontin from their system as compared to younger people.
Moreover, it is found that the average half-life of oxycontin increases by 2.3 hours in people with liver dysfunction and by 1 hour in people with kidney dysfunction. That means it will take longer to clear oxycontin from the body for people having liver or kidney dysfunction.
Conclusion
There are many other factors as well which can affect the time for which oxycontin stays in the system. These factors can be age, gender, dosage, the efficient or inefficient function of the body.
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