Therapeutic window

Therapeutic window (or pharmaceutical window) is an index for estimation of drug dosage which can treat disease effectively while staying within the safety range. In other words, it is the dosage of a medication between the amount that gives an effect (effective dose) and the amount that gives more adverse effects than desired effects. For instance, medication with a small pharmaceutical window must be administered with care and control, e.g. by frequently measuring blood concentration of the drug, since it easily loses effects or gives adverse effects.

More specifically, it is the range between the ED50 and the starting point of LD50 curve. It is believed that this index can help to avoid most of the potential side effects.

This index is believed to be more reliable than that of therapeutic index since this index considers the biological variation among individuals to a larger extent.

= See also = Therapeutic index

= Reference =