How Long Does Lorazepam Stay in Your System?

Like most drugs, detectable traces of lorazepam stay in your body for a significant amount of time.Exactly how long depends on a lot of factors, and tests use different samples that can detect the drug for different amounts of time.

Specifically, lab tests use four main samples to screen for drugs like lorazepam. These are blood, hair, saliva and urine. Take a minute to read up on the various tests and the other contributing factors to get an idea of how long lorazepam stays in your system.

How Long Does Lorazepam Stay in the Body?

Lorazepam has a half-life between 10-20 hours. This means around 95% of the drug is gone from your body after five days. Still, certain traces of the medication can be detectable by lab tests for much longer.

If you’ve taken lorazepam in the last six weeks, assume that a drug test may find it. Different tests require different samples, normally blood, hair, saliva or urine. Each of these may carry detectable traces for different amounts of time after your last use. Take a look.

How Long Does Lorazepam Stay in Your Blood?

Lorazepam is usually detectable by a lab test for around 3 to 5 days after use. Of course, this is not the same for everyone. Many different factors like genetics, age and weight affect its duration in your blood serum. 

How Long Does Lorazepam Stay in Your Hair?

Hair keeps traces of Lorazepam longer than any other sample used in screenings. A drug test can turn up positive up to 4 weeks after the last time taken. Again, how long it lasts depends on a variety of factors like your metabolism and the dosage, but four weeks is a good rule of thumb.

How Long Does Lorazepam Stay in Your Saliva?

The anti-anxiety medication has a relatively short half-life in your saliva. In fact, its duration is somewhere around 8 hours. Unlike your hair, lorazepam is not detectable in your saliva for very long.

How Long Does Lorazepam Stay in Your Urine?

This is considered the best sample for finding lorazepam in drug tests. Your body can maintain detectable traces of lorazepam for around 6 to 9 days in your urine, depending on your metabolism, age and other factors. It peaks at around 24 hours.

How Long Does Lorazepam Stay in Lab Tests

As you can see, lorazepam has a different half-life in each sample. Thus,the kind of drug test used will be the biggest factor in how long lorazepam is detectable in a screening. Several other factors make a difference in how long it lasts including the type of sample used.

Factors That Affect How Long Lorazepam will Stay in Your System

Physical Factors

Your body is unique, so the duration of lorazepam in your system is too. These physical factors will affect it:

• Genetics
• Age
• Height
• Weight
• Body fat percentage
• Metabolism
• Overall health

For example, a young and healthy person with an active metabolism will remove the drug from their system faster than an older person with a slower metabolism. Lorazepam will also be detectable for much less time in a larger person than a smaller person.

All these things combine to give you a particular profile that will determine how long lorazepam stays in your body.

Lorazepam Use Specifics

Your frequency of use is another major factor that will affect how long lorazepam stays in your body. The more often you use the drug, the more traces of it will build up in your system. That means it will be detectable for longer.

Additionally, lorazepam comes in two forms: oral and IV. The oral pills are metabolized much more slowly, meaning it stays in your system a bit longer than the injection.

Finally, the biggest use factor that will affect how long it lasts in your system is the dosage. Even though any dose of lorazepam has the same half-life, a larger dose will of course take longer to reach a level no longer detectable by a drug screening.

Mental Factors

Your mood and mental health can actually make a difference in how long lorazepam stays in your system, too. High levels of stress or anxiety affect your metabolism and digestion, and can keep traces of the drug in your body for longer. Similarly, mental illnesses like depression may cause the drug to spend more time in your system.

Treatment for Lorazepam Addiction

Lorazepam has a number of potent brain effects, hence its use as a prescribed medication. These effects include relaxation and sedation as well as the treatment of severe anxiety. These effects also make it highly addictive and prone to abuse.

Addiction to lorazepam or other benzodiazepines is a dangerous condition that can cause a number of negative side effects including low blood pressure and memory loss. In combination with other substances like alcohol, it can even lead to lethal overdose. Luckily, there are plenty of treatment options, so don’t wait to get help for yourself or someone you love. 

Inpatient treatment is one of the most effective ways to combat addiction and begin a new healthy lifestyle in recovery. From detox to group counseling and individual therapy, an inpatient program is a powerful tool in the fight against the addiction you or a loved one is struggling with. Make the call to Bedrock Recovery Center and start your new life today.