1. Monitoring of certain drugs theophylline, valproic acid, and methotrexate is associated with increased efficacy and decreased incidences and side effects. 2. Monitoring determines the safety of the dosage regimen. If the s…
Several steps are required in the systematic process of drug monitoring. These steps are as follows: Collection of Patient Data To monitor therapy effectively, one must have an adequate data-base of patient information. Th…
The number of studies in recent years has pointed to a need for more intensive monitoring of drug therapy. These reports have identified the following reasons: Polypharmacy The overuse of medications by patients and over-prescr…
“Drug Monitoring is that process which ensures that a patient is treated with least expensive, most effective therapeutic agent, in a manner that will maximize efficacy and minimize side effects”. It requires the pharmacist to as…
This is one very important at the same time complicated task for the Pharmacy and Therapeutic Committee for the selection of the considerations on which to base admission or deletion of drugs in the formulary. It is because no si…
There is a common tendency to use the terms ‘formulary and drug list’ synonymously or interchangeably. This is not correct, because there exists a vast difference in the scope and preparation of a formulary over a drug list. …
Controlled drugs are classified in the order of their abuse risk and placed in Schedules by the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The drugs with the highest abuse potential are placed in Schedule I (heroin, marijuana…
One of the vital functions of a hospital pharmacy department is to provide services to in-patients. All hospital invariably offers in-patient services, though they may or may not offer services to out-patients. An in-patient is “…