Soma, the brand name for carisoprodol, is a prescription muscle relaxant commonly used to treat musculoskeletal pain. While effective for short-term relief, it’s important to understand how long Soma remains in your body, especially if you’re undergoing drug testing or managing a prescription responsibly.

In this article, we break down how long Soma stays in your system, how it’s metabolized, and the detection windows across different drug tests.

What Is Soma (Carisoprodol)?

Soma is a centrally acting skeletal muscle relaxant that works by blocking pain sensations between the nerves and the brain. It is usually prescribed for short-term use (typically 2–3 weeks) and is often combined with rest and physical therapy.

Once ingested, Soma is metabolized in the liver into meprobamate, a substance with sedative properties that also plays a role in how long the drug stays in the body.

Soma’s Half-Life: The Key to Understanding Duration

The half-life of a drug refers to how long it takes for half of it to be eliminated from the body. Soma itself has a half-life of approximately 2 hours, but its active metabolite, meprobamate, has a much longer half-life—about 6 to 17 hours, and sometimes longer in heavy users.

How Long Does Soma Stay in Your System?

Below are the general detection windows for Soma and its metabolite:

The half-life of Soma is between 1-3 hours, so it can take up to 11 hours to be eliminated from your body. Even though this common pain medication has left your system, metabolites remain behind a little longer in various body parts, such as blood, saliva, urine, and hair