What is the relationship between dose and response?
For the most part, it varies depending on the drug. As discussed above, for risperidone, a lower dose often produces a better response. For SSRIs, it gets flat – so that increasing the medication dose usually does not improve the patient and after a while, there is no point increasing the dose if the patient isn’t getting better. For valproate, the more medicine administered (and the higher the plasma levels), the more likely the patient will get better, but also the more likely there will be side effects. Another problem that is important to keep in mind is that there is no clear definition of treatment response. We are generally clear about when a patient is better, but less clear on when they are able to resume premorbid functioning levels and how long that should take. The scientific literature is, at best, confusing on the subject. Most studies are 6 weeks long. Is that long enough? How long does it take to get better? How much influence does dose have on that? Do higher doses mea
