Dosage Health Dictionary

Dosage: From 2 Different Sources

The best time to take herbal medicine is half hour before meals. Acute conditions: doses should be taken a few days until cessation of symptoms or on practitioner’s instruction. Chronic cases: treatment may continue for weeks but with the break of a week after each period of 6 weeks.

Dosage may vary from herb to herb but today’s standard doses are as follows unless stated otherwise. Dried herbs may be swallowed with water (Psyllium seeds) or drunk as a tea or decoction. Dosage is usually thrice daily for chronic conditions and every 2 hours for acute cases.

Refer to appropriate entries for dosage of teas (infusions), decoctions, powders, liquid extracts, tinctures.

Children. 5 to 12 years. One quarter to half adult dose except where otherwise stated. Medical opinion is that after 12 years a child is regarded as an adult. For babies and children, teas and decoctions have much to commend them. Alcohol-based preparations should be avoided where possible.

Babies. 1 to 5 years. 1 to 5 teaspoons tea or decoction. Should a baby fail to take extract internally, a strong tea or decoction may be prepared and used as a footbath or poured into the bath water. This would need to be ten times as strong as for an internal dose. In this way medicaments may indirectly enter the circulation by absorption through a baby’s soft receptive tissue. Other liquid medicines: one drop for each year of age to 5 years; two drops thereafter to 12 years.

Measurement. 1 millilitre = 15 drops. 1 teaspoon = 5ml (5 millilitres or 75 drops liquid medicine). For liquid medicines always use a medicine glass graduated in millilitres, or a standard dropper. Take liquid extracts or tinctures in water (25ml) or honey.

Health Source: Bartrams Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine
Author: Health Encyclopedia

Many factors in?uence the activity with which drugs operate. Among the factors which affect the necessary quantity are age, weight, sex, idiosyncrasy, genetic disorders, habitual use, disease, fasting, combination with other drugs, the form in which the drug is given, and the route by which it is given.

Normally, a young child requires a smaller dose than an adult. There are, however, other factors than age to be taken into consideration. Thus, children are more susceptible than adults to some drugs such as MORPHINE, whilst they are less sensitive to others such as ATROPINE. The only correct way to calculate a child’s dose is by reference to texts supplying a recommended dose in milligrams per kilogram. However, many reference texts simply quote doses for certain age-ranges.

Old people, too, often show an increased susceptibility to drugs. This is probably due to a variety of factors, such as decreased weight; diminished activity of the tissues and therefore diminished rate at which a drug is utilised; and diminished activity of the KIDNEYS resulting in decreased rate of excretion of the drug.

Weight and sex have both to be taken into consideration. Women require slightly smaller doses than men, probably because they tend to be lighter in weight. The e?ect of weight on dosage is partly dependent on the fact that much of the extra weight of a heavy individual is made up of fatty tissue which is not as active as other tissues of the body. In practice, the question of weight seldom makes much di?erence unless the individual is grossly over- or underweight.

Idiosyncrasy occasionally causes drugs administered in the ordinary dose to produce unexpected effects. Thus, some people are but little affected by some drugs, whilst in others, certain drugs – for example, psychoactive preparations such as sedatives – produce excessive symptoms in normal or even small doses. In some cases this may be due to hypersensitivity, or an allergic reaction, to the drug, which is a possibility that must always be borne in mind

(e.g. with PENICILLIN). An individual who is known to be allergic to a certain medication is strongly advised to carry a card to this e?ect, and always to inform medical and dental practitioners and/or a pharmacist before accepting a new prescription or buying an over-the-counter preparation.

Habitual use of a drug is perhaps the in?uence that causes the greatest increase in the dose necessary to produce the requisite e?ect. The classical example of this is with OPIUM and its derivatives.

Disease may modify the dose of medicines. This can occur in several ways. Thus, in serious illnesses the patient may be more susceptible to drugs, such as narcotics, that depress tissue activity, and therefore smaller doses must be given. Again, absorption of the drug from the gut may be slowed up by disease of the gut, or its e?ect may be enhanced if there is disease of the kidneys, interfering with the excretion of the drug.

Fasting aids the rapidity of absorption of drugs, and also makes the body more susceptible to their action. Partly for this reason, as well as to avoid irritation of the stomach, it is usual to prescribe drugs to be taken after meals, and diluted with water.

Combination of drugs is to be avoided if possible as it is often di?cult to assess what their combined e?ect may be. In some cases they may have a mutually antagonistic e?ect, which means that the patient will not obtain full bene?t. Sometimes a combination may have a deleterious e?ect.

Form, route and frequency of administration Drugs are now produced in many forms, though tablets are the most common and, usually, convenient. In Britain, medicines are given by mouth whenever possible, unless there is some degree of urgency, or because the drug is either destroyed in, or is not absorbed from, the gut. In these circumstances, it is given intravenously, intra-muscularly or subcutaneously. In some cases, as in cases of ASTHMA or BRONCHITIS, the drug may be given in the form of an inhalant (see INHALANTS), in order to get the maximum concentration at the point where it is wanted: that is, in the lungs. If a local e?ect is wanted, as in cases of diseases of the skin, the drug is applied topically to the skin. In some countries there is a tendency to give medicines in the form of a suppository which is inserted in the rectum.

Recent years have seen developments whereby the assimilation of drugs into the body can be more carefully controlled. These include, for example, what are known as transdermals, in which drugs are built into a plaster that is stuck on the skin, and the drug is then absorbed into the body at a controlled rate. This method is now being used for the administration of GLYCERYL TRINITRATE in the treatment of ANGINA PECTORIS, and of hyoscine hydrobromide in the treatment of MOTION (TRAVEL) SICKNESS. Another is a new class of implantable devices. These are tiny polymers infused with a drug and implanted just under the skin by injection. They can be tailored so as to deliver drugs at virtually any rate – from minutes to years. A modi?cation of these polymers now being investigated is the incorporation of magnetic particles which allow an extra burst of the incorporated drug to be released in response to an oscillating magnetic ?eld which is induced by a magnetic ‘watch’ worn by the patient. In this way the patient can switch on an extra dose of drug when this is needed: insulin, for instance, in the case of diabetics. In yet another new development, a core of drug is enclosed in a semi-permeable membrane and is released in the stomach at a given rate. (See also LIPOSOMES.)

Health Source: Medical Dictionary
Author: Health Dictionary

Drug Dependence

One third of those taking tranquillisers become addicted. One of the problems of psychological dependence is the discomfort of withdrawal symptoms.

Symptoms. Tremors, restlessness, nausea and sleep disturbance. The greater potency of the drug, the higher the rebound anxiety. Many drugs create stress, weaken resistance to disease, tax the heart and raise blood sugar levels.

Drugs like Cortisone cause bone loss by imperfect absorption of calcium. Taken in the form of milk and dairy products, calcium is not always absorbed. Herbs to make good calcium loss are: Horsetail, Chickweed, Slippery Elm, Spinach, Alfalfa.

Agents to calm nerves and promote withdrawal may augment a doctor’s prescription for reduction of drug dosage, until the latter may be discontinued. Skullcap and Valerian offer a good base for a prescription adjusted to meet individual requirements.

Alternatives. Teas: German Chamomile, Gotu Kola, Hops, Lime flowers, Hyssop, Alfalfa, Passion flower, Valerian, Mistletoe, Oats, Lavender, Vervain, Motherwort. 1 heaped teaspoon to each cup boiling water; infuse 5-15 minutes; half-1 cup thrice daily.

Decoctions: Valerian, Devil’s Claw, Siberian Ginseng, Lady’s Slipper. Jamaica Dogwood, Black Cohosh.

Tablets/capsules. Motherwort, Dogwood, Valerian, Skullcap, Passion flower, Mistletoe, Liquorice. Powders. Formulae. Alternatives. (1) Combine equal parts Valerian, Skullcap, Mistletoe. Or, (2) Combine Valerian 1; Skullcap 2; Asafoetida quarter. Dose: 500mg (two 00 capsules or one-third teaspoon) thrice daily. Formula No 2 is very effective but offensive to taste and smell.

Practitioner. Tincture Nucis vom. once or twice daily, as advised.

Aloe Vera gel (or juice). Russians tested this plant on rabbits given heavy drug doses and expected to die. Their survival revealed the protective property of this plant: dose, 1 tablespoon morning and evening. Aromatherapy. Sniff Ylang Ylang oil. Lavender oil massage for its relaxing and stress-reducing properties.

Diet. Avoid high blood sugar levels by rejecting alcohol, white flour products, chocolate, sugar, sweets and high cholesterol foods.

Supplements. Daily. Multivitamins, Vitamin B-complex, B6, Vitamin C 2g, Minerals: Magnesium, Manganese, Iron, Zinc. Change of lifestyle. Stop smoking. Yoga.

Notes. “Do not withdraw: insulin, anticoagulants, epileptic drugs, steroids, thyroxin and hormone replacement therapy (the endocrine glands may no longer be active). Long-term tranquillisers e.g., Largactil or any medicament which has been used for a long period. Patients on these drugs are on a finely-tuned medication the balance of which may be easily disturbed.” (Simon Mills, FNIMH)

Counselling and relaxation therapy.

The Committee on Safety of Medicines specifically warns against the abrupt cessation of the Benzodiazepines and similar tranquillisers because of the considerable risk of convulsions. ... drug dependence

Dosage Health Dictionary

Dosage: From 2 Different Sources

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