Developmental Pharmacology – Special Issues During Childhood and Adolescence

Clinical pharmacology aims to quantify drug-specific (side)-effects based on pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD). PK ( a bsorption, d istribution, m etabolism and e xcretion, ADME ) hereby wants to describe the drug concentration over time (‘what the body does to the drug’) in a specific compartment, like plasma, cerebrospinal fluid or subcutaneous tissues. PD describes the link between drug concentrations and (side)-effects over time (‘what the drug does to the body’). Besides mean estimates, clinical pharmacology hereby also aims to predict and explain the extent of variability, and this is where pediatric clinical pharmacology has its specific characteristics since between and intra-patient variability is the key characteristic of children. This is because growth and development differences occur throughout the pediatric age span. These differences profoundly alter the PK and PD of drugs in children [1], [2].

• References

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