How Long Does Tramadol Stay in Your System

What is tramadol and what is it used for

A centrally acting opioid pain medication, Tramadol is used to treat moderate to severe pain. It is preferred over pain medications such as Percocet, Lortab, Ketamine, and Fentanyl.

In spite being of much lower strength than the drugs named above, Tramadol should never be abused recreationally to get high, as they can lead to severe psychological and physical dependence. The withdrawal from the drug can be rather trying, and life can go to the dogs if the dosage is not controlled and taken as prescribed.

How long does tramadol stay in your system after the last dose

Tramadol has an elimination half-life of 6.3 hours, which puts complete elimination time at around 35 hours, meaning that roughly after about 1 day and 11 hours since you have last taken the drug, it is likely to be eliminated from your system. It has to be noted that the primary metabolite of tramadol, ‘O-desmethyltramadol’ has slightly longer half-life duration of 7.4 hours, which means that it will be eliminated from your body after about 41 hours.

It can be safely concluded that 48 hours after you last take a dose of tramadol, the drug, and its primary metabolite will be done away with from your system.

It must be noted that these numbers are given only on average. In actuality, there are certain factors, both individual and otherwise, that have a bearing on how long tramadol is going to be in your system. While factors like the frequency of dosage, the dosage itself, whether it was of the IR or ER variety are of paramount importance, individual factors like age, height-weight ratio, fat percentage, genetics, liver and kidney functions, metabolic rate and urinary pH also need to be taken into consideration.

How long is Tramadol detectable in urine, blood, saliva, and hair follicle drug tests
Urine test	For up to 2-4 days
Blood test	Up to 6 hours
Saliva test	For 1-4 days
Hair follicle test	Up to 90 days