Medication Monitoring

Drug Monitoring, Therapeutic Drug Monitoring

What To Think About

• Medication blood levels can be measured in a person who may have taken an overdose.
• The dose of a medication may need to be adjusted until the right blood levels are achieved. Dosage of a medication may also need to be changed if a person's lifestyle changes (such as becoming more active) or if the person begins taking another medication that can affect the medication being monitored.
• A prothrombin time (PT) test is a different type of monitoring test. It is used to monitor the effects of the blood-thinning medication warfarin (Coumadin). A PT test may also be called international normalized ratio (INR). For more information, see the medical test Prothrombin Time.
• Many medications do not have established therapeutic levels or methods to measure them. The therapeutic level is determined either by how a person's symptoms are responding to the medication or by the onset of an adverse reaction.

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Author:	Maria G. Essig, MS, ELS Sydney Youngerman-Cole, RN, BSN, RNC	Last Updated: February 20, 2007
Medical Review:	Martin Gabica, MD - Family Medicine Donald Sproule, MD, CM, CCFP, FCFP - Family Medicine R. Steven Tharratt, MD, MPVM, FACP, FCCP - Pulmonology, Critical Care, Medical Toxicology
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