medication and physical exam

You should disclose ANY drugs you are taking any time you have to take a urine test. This is because some drugs can cause a false positive, and if you disclose it up front, the false result is no big deal. Even over the counter drugs can cause problems. Better safe than sorry.

the urine screening tests for the following:

• Marijuana (THC metabolite)
• Cocaine
• Amphetamines
• Opiates (including heroin)
• Phencyclidine (PCP)

I'm no doc, so I don't know if the drug you are taking would fall into one of these categories. If in doubt, I would suggest that you ask the school about it before you enroll, just to be safe.

 

I'm sorry but you'll find that if the collection people are doing the test corectly and the test is a DOT test they can not take any information on what medications you take. That's as per FMCSR part 40, subpart E, 40.61 (g).

You always want to CYA and tell the doctor what you are taking and what for. If the doctor is up to speed like they should be he will let you know what you can do if the medication is forbidden. If you conceal the information and get into a investigative accident later on they can find out and if they do you will hang. If there's people that got hurt and they are suing you and the company you can bet the company will shift all the blame onto you. It's just not worth taking a gamble because the doctors can find you a suitable replacement. Plus the courts can issue you jail time.

You're going to find that any medication that helps you to sleep is a bad mix with driving commercially. A lot of drivers use the over the counter "PM's" and do just fine. If I were you I'd sit down with the doctor that wrote you the prescription and discuss the fact that you are going to be a truck driver and if he or she stills oks the medication get a letter from the doctor. In the letter the doctor will need to explain that this medication when used properly should have no ill effect on your driving. You just do not want to leave yourself liable.

 

Seroquel is not the first line of defense or medication to treat GAD. Typically, Seroquel is prescribed when other drugs in the same class are not effective. Sounds to me, perhaps there's more to the story than GAD.

If I were you, I would sit down with my physician and let him/her advise whether you could pass a DOT physical taking Seroquel. You might want to print out a copy of the DOT physical to show your doctor.

I would hate to see you sign up for school and then be sent home because of your medication. Best of luck!

 

I stand corrected, Gashauler. I've never had to worry about what might be in my system, and was relying on foggy memory. It still seems like there was something, somewhere, once upon a time about the adviseability of disclosing anything you were taking.

Is it the Safety Dept. that you should notify prior to the test?

I raise this, as I recall something about if you disclose in advance, and the drug causes a false positive, then you won't be hammered over it. But if you don't disclose in advance, then the company has no choice but to assume the worst. Seems that there was also something about a retest if you failed.

Am I just mixing 12 years of faded memories to come up with a Picasso painting that makes no sense?

 

Hey, I completely understand. I bet we mix up what we did in the military too since we took so many of them there.

I highly recommend what you're saying here on letting the company know what your taking. We had a company doctor so we told him but safety is where you want to go if no doctor is employed.

I also recommend to everyone that they read the part40 of the FMCSR and know what is expected and what to look out for. We had this one poster on here that had the company tell him to go for the test. He got over to the collection place and couldn't go. So the collection place should have treated him with the shy bladder but they were closing in 20 minutes. He couldn't go and thought he'd return in the morning. He got hit with a refusal to test and the company ,of course, didn't stand up for him and fired him. To top it off they placed the refusal on his DAC report. So it's best to know what they can do to you.