Vakratund Education Society’s
GENESIS INSTITUTE OF PHARMACY
Sonyachi Shiroli, Tal, Radhanagari, Maharashtra 416212
PHARMACEUTICS-II
POSOLOGY
Miss.Piyusha P. Nejdar
Lecturer,
Genesis Institute of Pharmacy,
Radhanagari
CONTENT
What is Posology?
Dose and Dosage of drug
Factors Affecting Dose
Calculations of Doses on the basis of-
Age, Body weight, Surface Area
What is Posology?
The word Posology is derived from the Greek words “Posos”
meaning how much, and “logos” means science.
“Posology is branch of medical science which deals with dose of
drug which is administered to patient to get desired
pharmacological action.”
Dose and Dosage of drug
DOSE- A dose refers to a specified amount of medication taken at one
specific time.
Example- Paracetamol 450 mg tablet
DOSAGE- The dosage is the dose, or amount of drug, attached to a time-
frequency.
Example- a dosage of Paracetamol 450 mg trice a day.
Factors Affecting Dose
1.Age 9.Accumulation
2.Sex 10.Additive effect
3.Body weight 11.Synergism
4.Route of administration 12.Antagonism
5.Time of administration 13.Idiosyncrasy
6.Enviourmental factor 14.Tolerance
7.Emotinal factor 15.Tachyphylaxis
8.Presence of disease 16.Metabolic disturbance
Body weight
The average dose is mentioned either in terms of mg per kg body weight.
Another technique used as a total single for an adult weighing between 50-100kg.
However, the dose expressed in this fashion may not apply in case of obese patients,
children & malnourished patients.
It should be calculated according to body weight.
Age
The pharmacokinetics of many drugs changes with age
Newborn infants (pediatric) are abnormally sensitive to certain drugs because of the
immature state of their hepatic and renal function by which drugs are inactivated and
eliminated from the body
Whereas, elderly patients are more sensitive to some drug effect e.g. hypnotics which may
produce confusion state in them.
Sex
Women do not always respond to the action of drug in the same manner as it done in men.
Special care should be taken when drugs are administered during menstruation, pregnancy
& lactation.
The strong purgative eg. Aloes should be avoided during menstruation.
Similarly the drugs which may stimulate the uterine smooth muscles e.g. drastic purgative,
antimalarial drugs, ergot alkaloids are contra indicated during pregnancy
Alcohol, barbiturate, narcotic drugs acts on fetus through placenta.
During lactation, morphine, tetracycline avoided because its affect on babies.
Route of administration
I.V doses of drug are usually smaller than the oral doses, because Intravenous route might
enhance the chances of drug toxicity.
The effectiveness of drug formulation is generally controlled by the route of
administration.
Time of administration
The presence of food in the stomach delay the absorption of drugs
The drug are more rapidly absorbed from the empty stomach. So the amount of drug
which is very effective when taken before a meal may not be that much effective when
taken during or after meals.
The irritating drugs are better tolerated if administered after meals e.g. Iron, arsenic &
cod-liver oil should be given after meal.
Environmental Factors
Daylight is stimulant, enhancing the effect of stimulating
drugs and diminishing the effect of hypnotics.
Darkness is sedative. Hypnotics are more effective at
night
The amount of Barbiturates required to produce sleep
during day time is much higher then the dose required to
produce sleep at night
Emotional factors
The personality & behavior of a physician may influence the effect of drug especially
the drugs which are intended for use in a psychosomatic disorders
The females are more emotional than male & required fewer doses of certain drugs.
Presence of disease
Drugs like barbiturates & chlorpromazine may produce unusually prolonged effect in
patient having liver cirrhosis
Streptomycin is excreted mainly by the kidney may prove toxic if the kidney of the
patient is not working properly.
Accumulation
Some drugs which are slowly excreted may built up a sufficient high
concentration in the body and produces the toxic effect if it is
repeatedly administered for long time e.g. digitalis, emetine, heavy
metals because these drugs excreted slowly .
This occurs due to accumulative effect of the drug.
Additive effect
When the total pharmacological actions of two or more drugs
administered together are equivalent to sum of their individual
pharmacological action, the phenomenon is called as additive effect.
E.g. ephedrine & aminophylline in the treatment of bronchial
asthma.
Synergism
When two or more drugs are used in the combination form, their
action is increased, this phenomenon is called synergism.
Synergism is very useful when desired therapeutic result needed
is difficult to achieve with a single drug.
E.g. procaine & adrenaline combination, increase the duration of
action of procaine.
Antagonism
When the action of one drug is opposed by the other drug on the same physiological
system is known as drug antagonism.
The use of antagonistic response to drugs is valuable in the treatment of poisoning
E.g. milk of magnesia is given in acid poisoning where alkaline effect of milk of magnesia
neutralize the effect of acid poisoning.
Idiosyncrasy
Idiosyncrasy is also called as allergy.
An extraordinary response to a drug apart from its characteristic
pharmacological effect is called an idiosyncrasy.
E.g. small quantity of aspirin may cause gastric hemorrhage
Tolerance
It is called drug tolerance when an unusually large dosage is required
to produce an effect that is normally generated by a normal therapeutic dose of a drug.
E.g. smokers can tolerate nicotine, alcoholic can tolerate large quantity of alcohol
The drug tolerance is of two types: -
1.True tolerance- which is produced by oral & parenteral administration of the drug.
2.Pseudo tolerance- which is produced only to the oral route of administration.
Tachyphylax
is
Tachyphylaxis or acute tolerance occurs when drugs are administered
repeatedly at short intervals, causing the receptors to get blocked up
& the pharmacological response to that drug to decrease.
The decrease in response cannot be reversed by increasing the dose.
E.g. ephedrine given repeated dose at short intervals in the treatment of
bronchial asthma may produce very less response due to Tachyphylaxis.
Metabolic disturbance
Changes in water electrolyte balance & acid base balance, body
temperature & other physiological factor may modify the effect of drug.
E.g. salicylates reduce body temperature in only in case an individual
has rise in body temperature. They have no antipyretic effect if the body
temperature is normal.
Calculations of Doses
The dose of a drug given in the pharmacopoeia represents the average max.
quality of drugs which can be administered to an adult orally within 24 hrs.
The doses are also calculated in proportionate to age, body weight & surface
area of the patient.
Method of calculation of doses
1. Dose proportionate to age
2. Dose proportionate to body weight.
3. Dose proportionate to body surface area
Dose proportionate to
AGE
Young’s Formula Dilling’s Formula Fried’s formula
Children’s under 12 age Children between 4 to 20 For infants only
years of age.
1. Young’s formula
Age in years
Dose for a child = ------------------------ x Adult dose
Age in years +12
Children under 12 year of age
2. Dilling’s formula
Age in years
Dose for a child = ------------------------ x Adult dose
20
Children between 4 to 20 years of age.
3. Fried’s formula
Age in months
Dose for a child = ------------------------ x Adult dose
150
Proportionate to body weight-
Clark’s formula
Weight of the child in kg
Dose for a child = ------------------------------- x Adult dose
70
Proportionate to body surface area
Catzel Rule
Surface area of child
Dose for a child = ------------------------------ x Adult Dose
Surface area of Adult
The average body area for an adult is = 1.73m2
Hence,
Surface area of child
Dose for a child = ------------------------------ x Adult Dose
1.73m2
