Eli5 Why do some drugs (ie party drugs) work immediately while others need time (weeks) to get in your system? Could a higher dose get them in your system faster?
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Party drugs work quickly because if they didn’t work quickly it wouldn’t be much of a party. Kind of a contextual self-selection thing happening there.
Imagine if you did a line of blow and then had to wait a week. That’s no fun.
What drug is it you think takes weeks to get into your system? That isn’t a thing.
Some drugs can take weeks for their effects to be fully evident, or for the body to reach homeostasis (for instance, some antidepressants), but the drug is in your system and having effects within hours of taking it, even if they’re not always immediately apparent.
Party drugs are usually going after easily accessible targets and you generally accept the side effects.
Long, slow acting drugs like antidepressants are going after much harder (more complex) symptoms and trying to minimize side effects. It’s a harder, slower job.
It’s also true that party drugs are just better drugs from the efficacy point of view, and usually worse from the side effects and safety points of view. Fentanyl is an amazingly good painkiller, hugely better at killing pain than ibuprofen. But fentanyl kills you if you overdose a narrow therapeutic range and ibuprofen doesn’t, so the latter is in common use.
Antibiotics are best of both worlds. They are usually fast acting on bacterial targets and have no mammalian targets so you get fast and high efficacy!
What drug is it you think takes weeks to get into your system? That isn’t a thing.
Some drugs can take weeks for their effects to be fully evident, or for the body to reach homeostasis (for instance, some antidepressants), but the drug is in your system and having effects within hours of taking it, even if they’re not always immediately apparent.
I’m a nurse and work in a hospital. Almost all medications work as soon as they are absorbed into the system. The only ones I can think of that don’t are SSRIs. Those stay in a person’s system for a long time so a therapeutic dose has to be built up slowly to reach a stable level that isn’t to high or low.
I’m a nurse and work in a hospital. Almost all medications work as soon as they are absorbed into the system. The only ones I can think of that don’t are SSRIs. Those stay in a person’s system for a long time so a therapeutic dose has to be built up slowly to reach a stable level that isn’t to high or low.
What drug is it you think takes weeks to get into your system? That isn’t a thing.
Some drugs can take weeks for their effects to be fully evident, or for the body to reach homeostasis (for instance, some antidepressants), but the drug is in your system and having effects within hours of taking it, even if they’re not always immediately apparent.
I’m a nurse and work in a hospital. Almost all medications work as soon as they are absorbed into the system. The only ones I can think of that don’t are SSRIs. Those stay in a person’s system for a long time so a therapeutic dose has to be built up slowly to reach a stable level that isn’t to high or low.
I higher dose will get them ‘into your system faster’ most of the time. The problem is that you then overshoot the effect you’re aiming for and go into side effect or poison territory.
At high enough doses everything is a poison. If you have enough water fast enough it will kill you, even though you’re mostly water yourself.
I higher dose will get them ‘into your system faster’ most of the time. The problem is that you then overshoot the effect you’re aiming for and go into side effect or poison territory.
At high enough doses everything is a poison. If you have enough water fast enough it will kill you, even though you’re mostly water yourself.
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