[Contribution of computers to pharmacokinetics, Bayesian approach and population pharmacokinetics]

A major objective for pharmacokineticians is to help practicians to define drug administration protocols. Protocols are generally designed for all the patients but inter individual variability would need monitoring for each patient. Computers are widely used to determine pharmacokinetic parameters and to try to individualize drug administration. Severals examples are summarily described: terminal half-life determination by regression; model fitting to experimental data; Bayesian statistics for individual dose adaptation; population pharmacokinetic methods for parameter evaluation. These methods do not replace the pharmacokinetician thought but could make possible drug administration taking into account individual characteristics.