why do some medicine take an hour to kick in and some like anti depressants take weeks to work?
In: Chemistry
Medications have different mechanisms of action. They affect different systems in the body, in different ways. Your body absorbs them in different ways.
For a medication to start working, enough of it needs to reach the site it affects to have the desired effect, and then your body will respond to these chemicals. Ibuprofen will hit your bloodstream pretty quickly and reach the site of inflammation where it will suppress your body’s inflammatory response; that process happens quickly because inflammation does. It’s something your body does very rapidly in response to injury.
Changing the level of neurotransmitters in your brain is a much slower biologocal process and doesn’t happen as easily. The concentration of antidepressants needs to build up until it is enough to change your brain’s processes. This takes time to happen.
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