Medical Journals In Therapeutic Drugs

Therapeutic drug monitoring of concentrations of medicine in body fluids, usually plasma, are often used during treatment and for diagnostic purposes. The selection of medicine for therapeutic drug monitoring is vital because the concentrations of the many drugs aren't clearly associated with their effects. For selected drugs therapeutic drug monitoring aims to reinforce drug efficacy, reduce toxicity or assist with diagnosis. Despite its apparent advantages, it has inherent limitations. Some large hospitals have services which give support with drug monitoring and interpretation of results. This information is used to individualise dosage so that drug concentrations can be maintained within a target range.Drug concentration at the site of action cannot be routinely measured, but the desired or adverse effects may correlate better with plasma or blood concentrations than they are doing with dose. For a couple of drugs, concentration measurements are a valuable surrogate of drug exposure, particularly if there's no simple or sensitive measure of effect.When there's an outsized inter-individual variation between dose and effect, for instance when there's large pharmacokinetic variation, individualising drug dosage is difficult.1 this is often particularly relevant for drugs with a narrow firing range or concentration-dependent pharmacokinetics. Similarly, variations within a private can occur over time for a variety of reasons with some drugs, and therapeutic drug monitoring could then be useful.