Eg. Fluoxetine is an inhibitor of another medication. Does that mean it leaked the other medication work more or less?
In: 0
Drugs that are inhibitors of one another generally mess with metabolism.
The enzymes that break up drugs in our bodies are in limited supply. Fluoxetine being an inhibitor means it stops the enough of these enzymes from doing their jobs.
If a drug needs the enzymes to be metabolized and removed from the body but is unable to so, it builds up and can cause an overdose or toxic effects.
Some drugs are inactive in their pill/original form. They become active when they metabolize into a different substance. We call these prodrugs. If the prodrug is unable to break down, it never becomes active and there is no therapeutic effect.
Other super common inhibitors that should be avoided when taking meds are grapefruit and St. John’s Wort.
The opposite of everything above is called an inducer. An inducer makes the enzymes work really hard so drugs are metabolized to fast and don’t have time to work in the body.
TLDR: Inhibitors mess with metabolism causing a drug to build up and cause toxic effects or in the case of prodrugs, not build up at all.
Latest Answers