Psychotropic blood levels: a guide to clinical response

In the clinical use of psychotropic drugs, the value of blood level monitoring remains uncertain because, for most of these agents, consistent, predictable correlations between blood level and therapeutic response have not been established. In recent years productive work has been done in this area which suggests that, in certain clinical situations and with certain psychotropic agents, monitoring of blood levels may be a useful component of patient care. The literature regarding blood levels and therapeutic response to various psychotropic drugs is reviewed and some of the clinical settings in which blood levels are, in fact, predictive of therapeutic response in the management of psychiatric illness are discussed.