DOSE EQUIVALENCE OF THE ANTIPSYCHOTIC DRUGS
1975; Elsevier BV; Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/b978-0-08-018242-1.50015-5
Autores Tópico(s)Pharmaceutical studies and practices
ResumoPublisher Summary This chapter discusses the dose equivalence of the antipsychotic drugs. The pharmacologic effects of drugs provide a major tool for investigation of biochemical theories of mental illness such as the dopamine theory of schizophrenia. The dose necessary to produce a given pharmacologic effect is determined from biochemical pharmacologic investigation that is based on empirically determined data. The dose of the drug, which is marketed, often is taken as the dose that produces the human antipsychotic effect. A great many factors other than empirical evidence enter into the determination of a dose at which a drug is marketed. This involves commercial decisions by the drug company, medical legal decisions by their legal department, pressures from the food and drug administration, and historical accident in the early drug trials of a given drug. In double blind studies using flexible doses, physicians adjust the dose given to patients by their clinical response not knowing as to which medication was actually administered by adjusting the number of tablets. The physician generally knows that they are administering numbers of tablets that could be one of several medications or one of several medications and/or placebo. They adjust the number of tablets to obtain the maximum clinical response.
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