Posology

By: Mr. Bhavin D.
Pandya
M.Pharm (Pharmaceutical Technology)
Assistant Professor
Department of Pharmaceutics
Krishna School of Pharmacy & Research
(KSP)
Posology: (Derived from the greek words Posos means how much, and logos
means science).
Posology is a branch of medical science which deals with dose or quantity
of drugs which can be administered to a patient to get the desired
pharmacological action.
The dose of a drug cannot be fixed rigidly because various factors are responsible
such as age, sex, severity of the disease etc.
The official doses in pharmacopoeia represent the average range of quty.

Suitable for adults which is administered orally within 24 hrs.
When other routes of administration are followed the relevant appropriate dose
is given.
1. Age
2. Sex
3. Body weight
4. Route of administration
5. Time of administration
6. Environment factor
7. Emotional factor
8. Presence of disease
9. Accumulation
10. Additive effect
11. Synergism
12. Antagonism
13. Idiosyncrasy
14. Tolerance
15. Tachyphylaxis
16. Metabolic disturbance
1. 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.
 Failure to detoxify and eliminate drugs results in their accumulation
in the tissues to a toxic level.
 Whereas, elderly patients are more sensitive to some drug effect e.g.
hypnotics which may produce confusion state in them.
2. 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 foetus through placenta.
 During lactation, morphine, tetracycline avoided because its affect on
babies.
3. 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 to 100 kg.
 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.
4. Route of administration:
- I.V doses of drug are usually smaller than

the oral doses, bec…
- Intravenous route this might enhance

the chances of drug toxicity.
- The effectiveness drug formulation

of generally is bythe
controlled routeof
administration.
5. Time of administration:
- The presence of food in the stomach delay the

absorption of drug & rapidly absorbed from the
empty stomach.
- But it does not mean that much effective when

taken during or after meal.
- Iron, arsenic & cod-liver oil should be given after

meal & antacid drugs taken before meal.
6. Environmental 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.
7. Emotional factor:
- The females are more emotional than male &
required less dose of certain drugs.

- Inert dosage forms called placebos which
resemble the actual medicament in the physical

properties are known to produce therapeutic
benefit in disease like angina pectoris &
bronchial asthma.
8. Presence of disease:
- Drugs like barbiturates & chlorpromazine may

produce unusually prolonged effect in patient
having liver cirrhosis.
- Such as, streptomycin produce toxic effect on

these patient their kidney function is not working
properly because streptomycin excreted through
kidney.
9. Accumulation:
- Some drugs 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.
10. Additive effect:
- When two or more drugs administered together is
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.
11. Synergism:
- When desired therapeutic result needed is difficult to
achieve with single drug at that time two or more drugs
are used in the combination form for increasing their
action this phenomenon is called synergism.
- E.g. procaine & adrenaline combination, increase the

duration of action of procaine.
12. 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 neutralise the effect
of acid poisoning.
- When adrenaline & acetylcholine are given together, they
neutralise the effect of each other due to antagonism
because adrenaline is vasoconstrictor & acetylcholine is
vasodilator.
- Flumazenil is antagonist of benzodiazepines (Sedatives)

13. Idiosyncrasy:
- Idiosyncrasy is also called as allergy.
- An extraordinary response to a drug which is

different from its characteristic pharmacological
action is called idiosyncrasy.
- E.g. small quantity. of aspirin may cause gastric

hemorrhage.
- E.g some persons are sensitive to penicillin &

sulphonamide because they produce severe
toxic effect.
14. Tolerance:
- When an unusually large dose of a drug is
required to elicit an affect ordinarily produced

by the normal therapeutic dose of the drug, the
phenomenon is called as drug tolerance.
- E.g. smokers can tolerate nicotine, alcoholic can
tolerate large quantity of alcohol.

- The drug tolerance is of two types:
- True tolerance, which is produced by oral &
parenteral administration of the drug.

- Pseudo tolerance, which is produced only to the
oral route of administration.

15. Tachyphylaxis:
- When some drugs administered repeatedly at
short intervals, the cell receptors get blocked up
& pharmacological response to that drug
decreased.
- The decreased response cannot be reversed by

increasing the dose this phenomenon is called
tachyphylaxis or acute tolerance.
- E.g. ephedrine given repeated dose at short

intervals in the treatment of bronchial asthma
may produce very less response due to
tachyphylaxis.
16. 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.
The dose of a drug given in the
pharmacopoeia the average
represents quantity of drugs which can be
maximum
administered to an adult orally within 24 hrs.
The doses are also calculated in

proportionate to age, body weight & surface
area of the patient.
Dose proportionate to age: There are number of
methods by which the dose for a child can be
calculated from the adult dose
1. Young’s formula
2. Dilling’s Formula
3. Fried’s formula
4. Cowling’s formula
5. Clark’s formula
6. Dose proportionate to surface area
7. Catzel’s formula
1. Young's formula : This formula used for calculating
the dose for children's under 12 years of age.
Age in years
Dose for the child = ------------- X Adult
dose
Age in years + 12
2. Dilling’s formula: This formula is used for
calculating the doses for children in between 4 to 20 years.
This formula is considered better because it is easier & quick
to calculate the dose.
Age in years
Dose for the child = -------------- x Adult dose
20
3. Fried’s Formula : This formula is used for calculating
of dose for infants up to 2 years.
Age in months
Dose for infant’s= -------------- x Adult dose
150
4. Cowling’s formula:
Age at next birthday (in years)
Dose for child= x Adult dose
24
5. Clark’s formula: Dose proportionate to body

weight and it is used to calculate the dose on body
weight.
Childs weight in Kg
Dose for the child = ------------------x Adult dose
70
6. Dose proportionate to surface area : In this
method dose is calculated accordingly to surface
area it’s the more satisfactory & appropriate
method than based on age method.
Surface area of child
Percentage of adult dose=------------------ x 100
Surface area of adult
or
7. Catzel’s formula:
Surface area of patient in M2
Dose for patient =------------------------ x Adult
dose
1.73 M 2
where, 1.73 M 2 = Average adult surface area

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By: Mr. Bhavin D.

The official doses in pharmacopoeia represent the average range of quty.

- I.V doses of drug are usually smaller than

- Intravenous route this might enhance

- The effectiveness drug formulation

- The presence of food in the stomach delay the

- But it does not mean that much effective when

- Iron, arsenic & cod-liver oil should be given after

influence the effect of drug especially the drugs

required less dose of certain drugs.

resemble the actual medicament in the physical

- Drugs like barbiturates & chlorpromazine may

- Such as, streptomycin produce toxic effect on

- Some drugs produces the toxic effect if it is

- This occurs due to accumulative effect of the

- E.g ephedrine & aminophylline in the treatment of

- E.g. procaine & adrenaline combination, increase the

- The use of antagonistic response to drugs is valuable in

- E.g. milk of magnesia is given in acid poisoning where

- Flumazenil is antagonist of benzodiazepines (Sedatives)

- An extraordinary response to a drug which is

- E.g. small quantity. of aspirin may cause gastric

- E.g some persons are sensitive to penicillin &

required to elicit an affect ordinarily produced

tolerate large quantity of alcohol.

- True tolerance, which is produced by oral &

parenteral administration of the drug.

oral route of administration.

- The decreased response cannot be reversed by

- E.g. ephedrine given repeated dose at short

- Changes in water electrolyte balance & acid

- E.g. salicylates reduce body temperature in

The doses are also calculated in

5. Clark’s formula: Dose proportionate to body

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