I have heard the term; “build up in his /her system & therapeutic level”. What exactly does that mean?
When a medication is started the body gets rid of it through the liver or kidneys. When a patient takes in more medication than his or her body can get rid of it “builds up” in the blood. About 5 days after an increase in the dose (more for some drugs and less for others) the patient’s body gets rids of the same amount of drug that he or she takes in each day. That is known as being at “steady-state”. For some drugs doctors can use blood tests to tell when the patient is getting enough medication. The amount of the drug in the blood at which it works is the “therapeutic level”. For those drugs, your child’s doctor will measure the amount of drug in his or her blood after about 5 days to determine if the drug is at a “therapeutic level”. If the drug level is too low the doctor will increase the dose, if it is too high the doctor will lower it. Once a drug is at a “therapeutic level”, it still may take about a month before you see response to treatment.
