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Re: Half Life of drugs--what does it mean?

Posted by Sean on May 3, 1999, at 12:05:48

In reply to Half Life of drugs--what does it mean?, posted by ruth on May 3, 1999, at 7:53:00

> Can anyone explain to me in layman's terms
> how the half life of drug works? here's a
> practical example for you: I take 10 mg's of
> celexa a day--I know the half life is 35 hours. How
> long would it take for it to be out of my system
> completely? Half of that? (like 18 hours?)
> Does it depend on how long you take it?
>
> I seem to be able to get away with taking the lowest
> dose of celexa a few days a week (4 times a week) and
> still have a therapeutic effect. Maybe it's b/c my
> depression is mild, I don't know.

I believe half-life refers to a serum concentration
of half the peak level of a given dose. That is,
the *time* it take for a person's metabolism to
process the drug to half the peak level.

Of course everybody is different and the actual
time to process a given medication differs greatly,
so the published half-life is an estimate, not a
specific prediction.

Meds with longer half lives can have less frequent
dosing. But they also take longer to "wash-out"
completely...

Does this help?

Sean.


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poster:Sean thread:5528
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19990501/msgs/5532.html