Prozac (fluoxetine) is easily absorbed after being swallowed, whether or not the patient has recently eaten. (However, the presence of food does slow down the process somewhat.) Once the medication is absorbed, it is metabolized primarily by the liver, which turns fluoxetine into its breakdown product (or metabolite), norfluoxetine. Both chemicals block the uptake of serotonin.

About a month after beginning treatment, the concentration of both fluoxetine and norfluoxetine reaches a stable level. Part of this stability derives from the fact that as an antidepressant Prozac has a long half-life, meaning that it takes a relatively long time to decrease by half its originally administered amount. The half-life of fluoxetine is one to three days, and the half-life of norfluoxetine ranges from seven to fifteen days – a long time compared to the other SSRIs on the market. Prozac lingers. An advantage to its long half-life is that patients who stop taking the drug, even abruptly, are unlikely to go through withdrawal, which often occurs with antidepressant drugs that have a shorter half-life. Similarly, a patient who forgets to take a pill for a day or two will not be plunged into despair as a result of the lapse.

On the other hand, sometimes you might not want Prozac to be in the body, perhaps because of a medical emergency that requires another drug. In switching to a MAOI, a patient has to wait up to five weeks, since the two drugs together can be lethal and are thus contraindicated. In that situation, the long half-life could conceivably be a disadvantage.

Prozac is excreted print with about 80% of the drug eliminated by the urine and 15% by the feces. Although more long-term studies need to be done, the process of absorption, metabolism, and excretion of Prozac seems to be the same in the elderly and in the young.

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