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Published on: February 11, 2019
The time course of drug effects
Hesham S Al-Sallami1, Venkata V Pavan Kumar, Cornelia B Landersdorfer
1School of Pharmacy, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
This review explains how drug effects change over time. It covers pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic, and pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic models to understand drug onset, duration, and intensity relative to disease progression.
Area of Science:
- Pharmacology
- Pharmacokinetics
- Pharmacodynamics
Background:
- Understanding the temporal dynamics of drug action is crucial in clinical practice.
- Existing models often focus on concentration-effect relationships, but the time course is complex.
- Integrating drug concentration, effect, and disease progression is essential for optimizing therapy.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce fundamental concepts of drug time-effect relationships.
- To present pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic, and linked PK/PD models.
- To illustrate how these models explain the time course of drug effects in relation to disease progression.
Main Methods:
- Review of established pharmacokinetic (PK) models.
- Discussion of pharmacodynamic (PD) models.
- Introduction of integrated pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) models.
- Exploration of drug time-effect models with examples.
- Consideration of disease progression models.
Main Results:
- Models for drug concentration over time (PK) and concentration-effect (PD) are presented.
- Linked PK/PD models are introduced to describe the overall time course of drug effects.
- Examples illustrate how models explain drug onset, duration, and maximal effect.
- The interplay between drug effects and disease progression is discussed.
Conclusions:
- Pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic modeling provides a framework for understanding drug time-effect relationships.
- These models are essential for predicting and optimizing drug response.
- Integrating drug effects with disease progression enhances therapeutic strategies.
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