ABSTRACT
The course of a drug in the body is particularly complex and depends
on several processes, from administration to the manifestation of
the pharmacological effect. In general, pharmacological response
depends on the administered dose of the drug. Yet since no two
individual patients are identical, there is a significant interindividual
variability observed in the responses of patients when administered
the same dose (Fig. 26.1). This interindividual variability arises from
a wide range of factors. Each of these factors may influence different
Figure 26.1 The same dose of a drug, administered to different patients, results in different pharmacokinetic profiles due to the interindividual
variability of the pharmacokinetic parameters of the patients. This is
the reason that a drug response is correlated much better to the drug
concentration levels, if known, than to the dose.
