How does oral medication travel from the stomach to the problem area?

Question

For example, when I take antidepressant pills, how does the active ingredient get from my stomach all the way up to the synapses in my brain?

In: Biology

Answer 1

Your digestive system absorbs the chemical directly into the blood stream. However these chemicals are designed to attach to only certain receptors, so your antidepressant attaches to certain seretonin receptors and blocks them from absorbing the naturally created seretonin. This increases the amount of seretonin in your brain and let’s you have a higher baseline level. This is why they are called Selective Seretonin Reuptake Inhibitors or SSRIs