Drug Administration Schedules
ALBERTO DIMASCIO PH.D.1, and
RICHARD I. SHADER M.D.2
1 Co-directors of the psychopharmacology research laboratory, Massachusetts Mental Health Center and director of psychopharmacology for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, 591 Morton St., Boston, Mass. 02124, and associate professor of psychiatry, Tufts Medical School, Medford, Mass.
2 Co-directors of the psychopharmacology research laboratory, Massachusetts Mental Health Center and Associate clinical director, Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Boston, Mass., and assistant professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Mass.
Common current practice is to prescribe psychotropic drugs so that a specified daily amount is administered in equally divided doses on a three to six times a day schedule. The authors contend that this procedure rests on no valid scientific basis. They cite a number of pharmacologic facts to bolster this conclusion and review the effects and effectiveness of various schedules of drug administration. They conclude that revisions can be made in the present methods of drug administration that result in great pragmatic benefit without loss of therapeutic effect.
