2007-01-31 02:47:53 · 5 answers · asked by brandon j 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Medicine
You question needs to be reworded: "How long does it takes for medications in tablet or capsule form to become non-detectable in blood, urine or breath samples?" and that varies. It depends upon what is called the "Half-life" of a substance in a human. If the half life of a substance is 12 hours, it means that the amount that you originally took is half gone in 12 hours, and half of that is gone in another 12, and so on. Different substances have different half lives.... some have half lives of days, or weeks, some months, and some, even years.
Helpful?
2007-01-31 03:28:52 · answer #1 · answered by April 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Variations on this question seem to be a recurrent theme here. It has been said that there are no stupid questions, but this comes close. Think: Is it really reasonable to think the contents of a pill will be absorbed into the system, stay at a therapeutically useful level for X number of hours, and then miraculously disappear all at once? Most, but by no means all, drugs exhibit something close to first-order kinetics; that is, from a peak level in the bloodstream, 1/2 will be metabolized and/or excreted in X number of hours, and 1/2 the remaining amount in the next X hours, etc. In theory a tiny amount remains for a long, long time. For those trying to skirt a urine drug screen, they need to know the general pharmacodynamics of the drug and its metabolites, their own personal metabolic peculiarities, and all of the details about the particular testing methods used by the lab running the screen, and different companies do use different tests for detection, so it takes at least two "inside" people, one to know the company and what lab they use for testing, and another who works in that lab and knows the methodology, to even make a wild guess.
2007-01-31 16:57:18 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
As someone else pointed out, it really all depends on the biological halflife of a substance. The biological halflife is very different for various medications, you need to specify what you are refering to by the word "pill". If state what substance you are talking about, I could look it up for you in the Physicians Desk Reference or some similar book.
2007-01-31 13:06:16 · answer #3 · answered by exon111 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
42 hours. Applies to all pills, of course, because all pills are the same.
2007-01-31 11:13:10 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
depends on the medication. for some their effect is felt up to a week after you stop taking them
2007-01-31 12:49:58 · answer #5 · answered by shiara_blade 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋