[Rational posology and drug dosage]

Area of Science:

• Pharmacology and Therapeutics
• Clinical Chemistry

Context:

• Individual pharmacokinetic and metabolic variations necessitate tailored drug regimens.
• Specific patient and drug conditions indicate the need for therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM).
• Drugs with low therapeutic indices often require careful serum level monitoring.

Purpose:

• To optimize drug therapy by considering individual patient variability.
• To identify situations where drug monitoring is particularly indicated.
• To discuss the role of serum drug monitoring in clinical practice.

Summary:

• Serum drug level monitoring is essential for personalized drug therapy, accommodating individual pharmacokinetic differences.
• It is particularly relevant for drugs with narrow therapeutic indices and under specific physiological or pharmacological conditions.
• Alternative, more specific measurements may replace serum monitoring for highly protein- or cell-bound drugs in the future.

Impact:

• Enables more effective and safer drug use through personalized dosing.
• Highlights the importance of TDM in managing complex patient cases.
• Suggests future directions in drug level assessment for improved patient outcomes.