How long does medication in pill form typically take before it's effective?

Answer by  ck0689 (284)

Medications can take anywhere from about ten minutes to forty-five minutes. The timing depends on the coating on the pill and what is in the pill. There are two forms of pills, tablets and capsules, and the timing for capsules relies on the shell dissolving and then the contents of the capsule. Tablets dissolve at mostly a constant rate.

Answer by  RaghuSP (9)

It depends on the molecule and pill formulation methods, there are certain molecules it starts after an hour where the brand name suffix with SR- sustain release, regular molecules like paracetamol, nimisulide and other molecules act immediately after 15 to 20 minutes, so there is not set time frame for the medication to act, it all depends on molecule.

Answer by  tamarawilhite (17883)

Most pills take 12 hours to break down in the stomach and reach the blood stream. Some pills dissolve within 8 hours.