ABSTRACT
Drugs are pharmacologically-active substances which may be helpful or harmful according to the way in which they are used. The medical practitioner aims at using drugs for the benefit of the patient and so he has to take into account the action of the drugs upon the human organism and the dose required to produce such an action. Often the beneficial or therapeutic dose and the dose producing unwanted effects (side effects) are close to each other. There is usually a recommended range of dosage of drugs for adults and most texts quote the minimum effective and the safe maximum dose. In children, drugs are usually prescribed in relation to body weight. For adolescents, adult dosage is often appropriate but in prepubertal youngsters and, for example, patients with anorexia nervosa, paediatric dosage may be sufficient. Again in general terms, the side effects of drugs in adolescents are similar to those in adults.
