Therapeutic Drug Monitoring as a Useful Tool in Therapy Improvement, 3rd Edition

A special issue of Pharmaceutics (ISSN 1999-4923). This special issue belongs to the section "Clinical Pharmaceutics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2025 | Viewed by 599

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Physical Pharmacy and Pharmacokinetics, Poznań University of Medical Sciences, 60-781 Poznan, Poland
Interests: drug analysis; pharmacokinetics; aritficial neural networks; data mining; drug–drug interactions
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Physical Pharmacy and Pharmacokinetics, Poznań University of Medical Sciences, Poznan, Poland
Interests: therapeutic drug monitoring; HPLC; method validation; polymorphism; pharmacokinetics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Physical Pharmacy and Pharmacokinetics, Poznań University of Medical Sciences, Poznan, Poland
Interests: therapeutic drug monitoring; pediatrics; analytical methods; population pharmacokinetics; drug–drug interactions
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Responses to therapy may vary between patients. Therapeutic drug monitoring is helpful for addressing this phenomenon. This Special Issue is targeted towards authors whose work focuses on therapeutic drug monitoring. We invite submissions concerning observed drug–drug interactions based on the effects of drug concentrations on biological matrices, as well as their pharmacokinetic impacts. Original papers concerning new drugs for which therapeutic drug monitoring may be beneficial are also welcome, as are those focused on new approaches for therapeutic drug monitoring. Interactions in the pharmacokinetic phase may also be observed in animal models; however, they must be relevant to the human body. In this context, papers concerning pharmacokinetic interactions in both human and animal models are welcome. We also encourage manuscripts in which machine learning techniques are applied in TDM or in the evaluation of side effects of pharmacotherapy. This Special Issue will include original and review articles.

Dr. Andrzej Czyrski
Dr. Matylda Resztak
Dr. Joanna Sobiak
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • drug–drug interactions
  • pharmacokinetics
  • therapeutic drug monitoring
  • machine learning

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

16 pages, 365 KB  
Article
Sex-Specific Differences in Antidepressant and Antipsychotic Treatment Outcomes and Serum Levels in Children and Adolescents
by Maike Scherf-Clavel, Stefanie Fekete, Manfred Gerlach, Christoph U. Correll, Paul Plener, Jörg M. Fegert, Andreas Karwautz, Peter Heuschmann, Tobias Banaschewski, Wolfgang Briegel, Christian Fleischhaker, Tobias Hellenschmidt, Hartmut Imgart, Michael Kaess, Michael Kölch, Karl Reitzle, Tobias J. Renner, Christian Rexroth, Gerd Schulte-Körne, Frank Theisen, Susanne Walitza, Christoph Wewetzer, Franca Keicher, Stefan Unterecker, Sebastian Walther, Marcel Romanos, Karin M. Egberts, Timo Vloet and Regina Taurinesadd Show full author list remove Hide full author list
Pharmaceutics 2025, 17(8), 983; https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics17080983 - 30 Jul 2025
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Abstract
Introduction: Sex-specific differences in psychopharmacological treatment have gained increasing attention in adults, with studies showing that women often have higher serum concentrations of psychotropic drugs due to biological differences. However, despite recognition of these differences in adults, reference ranges for therapeutic drug monitoring [...] Read more.
Introduction: Sex-specific differences in psychopharmacological treatment have gained increasing attention in adults, with studies showing that women often have higher serum concentrations of psychotropic drugs due to biological differences. However, despite recognition of these differences in adults, reference ranges for therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) in general, but even more sex-specific therapeutic windows for psychotropic drugs, are lacking in children and adolescents, who may metabolize and respond to medications differently. Aim: The study aimed to investigate sex-specific differences in antidepressant (AD) and antipsychotic (AP) -treatment outcomes, and pharmacokinetics in childhood/adolescence. In particular, we examined differences in AD and AP serum levels and clinical effects, including adverse drug effects (ADEs) and therapeutic effectiveness. Methods: This study is part of the multicenter “TDM-VIGIL” pharmacovigilance project, which prospectively followed patients aged 6–18 years treated with AD and AP across 18 child psychiatric centers in German-speaking countries from 2014 to 2018. Clinical data, including drug concentrations (AD: fluoxetine, mirtazapine, (es)citalopram, sertraline; AP: aripiprazole, quetiapine, olanzapine, risperidone), were collected using an internet-based registry, and treatment outcomes and ADEs were assessed during routine visits. Statistical analyses were performed to examine sex differences in pharmacokinetics and clinical responses, adjusting for age, weight, and other confounders. Results: A total of 705 patients (66.5% girls, 24.7% <14 years, mean age of 14.6 years) were included. Female patients were slightly older, had lower body weight, and were more often diagnosed with depression and anorexia nervosa, while boys were more frequently diagnosed with hyperkinetic disorders and atypical autism. We found no sex differences in the serum concentrations of investigated drugs when adjusted for age and weight. In fluoxetine treatment in patients diagnosed with mood (affective) disorders, female sex was associated with the probability for very good therapy response (p = 0.04), as well as with moderate treatment response (p = 0.02) compared to no treatment response. Discussion: Our findings suggest that sex may not affect serum levels of investigated AD and AP in children/adolescents. However, treatment outcome of fluoxetine was associated with sex, with higher probability for a better outcome in female patients diagnosed with mood (affective) disorders. Full article
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