Singapore, March 10, 2008: University of Queensland researchers are leading the charge in adapting drug dosing to a society that is changing shape.
As the level of obesity in the Western World continues to rise, Dr Bruce Green of the School of Pharmacy at University of Queensland, Australia, says researchers face the ongoing challenge of determining just how dosages should be adjusted for different body sizes and compositions.
Dr Green said, “In a pharmacological sense, obesity presents a challenging role for clinicians, as the effects of altered body composition on the time course of drug response are poorly understood.”
It is this shortfall that the School of Pharmacy's Modelling and Simulation Group is looking to redress, as they work to optimize dosages for a variety of drugs in the overweight population.
Dr Green further said, “The purpose of this study is linked to our overall strategy of ensuring that patients who are overweight do not get overdosed by dosing on total body weight, or under dosed by giving fixed doses to all patients. We propose that drugs should be dosed on our formula for lean body weight to match drug exposure across individuals of differing body compositions. The results should minimize adverse events and improve efficacy of drugs, which we have already shown in an individualized dosing trial for enoxaparin (a blood thinning drug).”
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