Normally how often are you drug tested at your doctors if you are on narcotics ?

In the normal course of events, not at all! Since the amount of the prescription is set, as is the frequency, asking for more medication early would be a dead giveaway that you had been “over-medicating!”

I’ve never heard of anything like this. Can you give more details please?

It’s pretty routine for chronic narcotic administration for people to be drug tested. It’s a) to make sure that the patient is taking the medication and b) not taking anything else. Many physicians require it every visit.

I know of Doctors asking the patient to bring in their prescriptions in order to check pill counts but not testing. It might be different between patients who electively seek drug therapy versus court ordered therapy?

@Neizvestnaya No, as I said it’s common for many physicians to order drug tests for patients on chronic narcotics. In fact, it’s pretty much standard practice in many places.

@Rarebear, is it part of the DEA’s guidelines for pain management report a few years back, namely because of the Oxycontin abuse?

@bkcunningham I haven’t read the DEA guidelines recently, so I don’t know the answer to that question.

Must be a big city thang!

@Rarebear, the question intriqued me. I wasn’t aware of this practice. Just a quick search and I found the link at the bottom of this post. No @CaptainHarley, apparently it is because of widespread abuse of narcotics.

http://www.fsmb.org/pdf/2004_grpol_Controlled_Substances.pdf

Also, some background:
http://www.touchneurology.com/articles/chronic-narcotic-therapy-patients-chronic-non-malignant-pain?page=0%2C0

@Rarebear: I think it’s a good idea.

@Neizvestnaya I have to research and think about it more before I have an opinion. At first glance, I think it could bring up a variety of issues. Of course that is just a knee-jerk reaction since I’ve just started reading about the medication agreement and drug testing by a physician prescribing for chronic narcotic therapy. I saw in one agreement, that the doctor would start weening the patient off the medications. What happens then? If the patient abuses the meds and violates the agreement, is the patient flagged someway? Just some initial questions in my head.

None of this answered the original question though. Sorry @silky1

Sorry @Rarebear did answer.