Pharmacokinetic Principles of Dosing Adjustments : Understanding the Basics

This book has evolved over the last twenty years from a cumulative effort to develop a professional course in pharmacokinetics that would assist future practitioners in therapeutic decision making. As practicing pharmacists become more involved with patient advising, it becomes apparent that clinicians will be required to make dosing adjustments for certain drugs. This will become increasingly more likely as pharmacy practitioners have access to patient information that requires careful attention to dose and dosing interval, which in turn correlates to various pharmacokinetic parameters such as half-life and the volume of distribution of drugs.

Although many handbooks are available on this subject, they do not devote more than a brief chapter to the concepts behind the dosing adjustment approach. Pharmacokinetic Principles of Dosing Adjustments provides the concepts used to formulate approaches. Equations that appear in various chapters are developed, not through lengthy derivations, but by more of an intuitive approach. The equations are presented in their conceptual form, rather than a separate convenient form applicable to each clinic situation. This method is used to demonstrate how you can apply the initial conditions to the properties of the drug, patient and/or route of administration, rather than memorizing each variation of the basic equation. The author defines pertinent pharmacokinetic terms as well as kinetic processes and classical modeling relevant to dosing adjustments. Examples are included within each chapter that emphasize an understanding of the concepts.

Pharmacokinetic Principles of Dosing Adjustments was written for practitioners who operate in a setting that requires careful consideration to dosing parameters and, in particular, with patients that require constant monitoring of therapeutic outcomes including dosing adjustments. Based on the introductory course in pharmacokinetics taught by Dr. Schoenwald for the past twenty years, this book is intended as a review and resource for practicing pharmacists.