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 | Last Updated: January 24, 2007 |
| Medical Review: | Martin Gabica, MD - Family Medicine R. Steven Tharratt, MD, MPVM, FACP, FCCP - Pulmonology, Critical Care, Medical Toxicology | |
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| Topic Contents | |
| Test Overview | |
| Why It Is Done | |
| How To Prepare | |
| How It Is Done | |
| How It Feels | |
| Risks | |
| Results | |
| What Affects the Test | |
 | What To Think About |
| References | |
| Credits | |