WHAT IF I MISS A DOSE?

 

Medications for mental health are usually 'long acting'. This means that every dose of medication is able to work for several hours, usually exceeding one full day. Yet there are some things that one needs to understand before answering the common question – "What will happen if I miss one dose of the medicine".

If you observed yourself taking medication, you would have noticed that the response is not immediate. In fact, there is usually an adjustment period with some discomfort before the medication begins to work as intended. The adjustment effects are because of the body's response to the 'new' drug and somewhat unfamiliar changes in the body's chemistry. But the intended effects are delayed because firstly the medication has to achieve 'steady state levels' in the body. This means a certain level of medication has to be maintained in the body at all times. This happens after you have taken the medication for 5to7 days. After that the medication begins its work and the symptoms reduce slowly.

So if you miss a dose- the reverse effect occurs. As the steady state is already achieved, your disease symptoms remain under control. If you have any side effects of medication- you will not experience them that day and so feel better than usual. Thus the usual experience on missing a single dose is to actually feel better overall. However, some medications have an additional action to calm you down and this is a sort of 'short term' effect. For these particular medications, you will begin to feel a withdrawal effect 6 to 10 hours after the missing the dose. The withdrawal can vary from mild uneasiness to miserable degree of dizziness and nausea. The withdrawal symptoms also depend on the persons metabolism, state of mind that day and other diseases and medications. The longer term problem with occasionally missing a dose, is that the steady state level becomes reduced overall- so the medication becomes ineffective and symptoms of the disease come back in a 'relapse'.

Thus the best thing to do is to make sure you do not miss a single dose anytime. As a doctor, I find it difficult to respond to the question because you are not SUPPOSED to miss any doses. So its a scenario that I would rather prevent totally than prepare you for.