How Long Do Side Effects Of Medicine Take To Vanish?

Posted on Mon, 11 Aug 2014

Question: In a reaction to a medication, do the symptoms go away as soon as the drug is out of the body or can the effects be longer lasting?

Answered by Dr. Dr. Muhammad Sareer Khalil (3 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Depends entirely on the half life of the medicine

Detailed Answer:
Hello and welcome.

Every drug or medicine has a property called half life meaning the time it takes to eliminate 50 % of a drug.

if the drug has zero order kinetics then elimination rate is independent of plasma concentration, means these drugs have no fixed half lives. A constant amount of drug is eliminated per unit time. these include ethanol phenytoin and salicylates.

if the drug has 1st order kinetics then rate of elimination depends on plasma level of the drug. most drugs follow 1st order means the higher the amount the greater the elimination.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Yogesh D