Acta Pharm. 64 (2014) 387-401

 

full paper

Review

 

Therapeutic drug monitoring of atypical antipsychotic drugs

MILAN GRUNDMANN, IVANA KACIROVA and ROMANA URINOVSKA

milan.grundmann@osu.cz

1 Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ostrava, Ostrava Czech Republic

2 Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Laboratory Diagnostics, University Hospital Ostrava, Ostrava Czech Republic

Accepted July 3, 2014

 

Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric disorder often associated with cognitive impairment and affective, mainly depressive, symptoms. Antipsychotic medication is the primary intervention for stabilization of acute psychotic episodes and prevention of recurrences and relapses in patients with schizophrenia. Typical antipsychotics, the older class of antipsychotic agents, are currently used much less frequently than newer atypical antipsychotics. Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) of antipsychotic drugs is the specific method of clinical pharmacology, which involves measurement of drug serum concentrations followed by interpretation and good cooperation with the clinician. TDM is a powerful tool that allows tailor-made treatment for the specific needs of individual patients. It can help in monitoring adherence, dose adjustment, minimizing the risk of toxicity and in cost-effectiveness in the treatment of psychiatric disorders. The review provides complex knowledge indispensable to clinical pharmacologists, pharmacists and clinicians for interpretation of TDM results.

 

Keywords: therapeutic drug monitoring, antipsychotic drugs, therapeutic reference ranges