Considerations about paediatric dosing: From birth to adulthood, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics

摘要

The results of years of research have demonstrated that children do not respond to medications in the same way as adults. Profound anatomical, physiological, and developmental changes cause differences between children and adults in the ADME processes and overall response to medications. Substantial variation also exists among children of different ages in the ability to metabolize, absorb, excrete, and transform medications. For the majority of drugs, in children as well as adults, the relationship shown in Fig. 1 exists between the dose and the observed response (desired or adverse) which depends on the pharmacokinetics (Pl<) and pharmacodynamics (PD) processes.