Definition of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring

Definition of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring

“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 assimilate patient data and continually assess whether the drug therapy is producing expected therapeutic benefits or adverse effects. 


Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (TDM) is a process in clinical pharmacology that specializes in measuring the concentration of certain drugs in the body fluids and clinically interpreting it to obtain useful and often lifesaving information. It is defined as “the use of drug concentration measurements in body fluids as an aid to the management of drug therapy for the cure, alleviation or prevention of disease”. TDM is done only for a few selected drugs with a narrow therapeutic range where the challenge is to avoid both subtherapeutic and overtly toxic doses. 


Therapeutic Drug Monitoring TDM is based on the principle that for some drugs there is a close relationship between the plasma level of the drug and its clinical effect. If such a relationship does not exist TDM is of little value. Like any diagnostic test, the measurement of plasma level is justified only when the information provided is of potential therapeutic benefit. The clinical value of plasma level monitoring depends on how precisely the treatment outcome can be defined. 

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