John Kane
Professor and Chairman, Department of Psychiatry, Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell
Book Recommendations:
Recommended by John Kane
“'As we redouble our efforts to achieve the goals of personalized medicine, therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) can play a critical role. Individuals vary enormously in how they absorb and metabolize different medications and which impactful environment factors or co-occurring conditions they might encounter. In my view, the potential value of the knowledge that can be provided by TDM has been given less attention than it deserves. Meyer and Stahl have done an excellent job of reviewing this topic. They address all necessary perspectives, from optimizing response and tolerability to better monitoring of adherence and help to explain idiosyncratic or unexpected medication effects, as well as the timing and interpretation of plasma levels. This is an extremely useful text for anyone involved in the use of antipsychotic drugs.' John M. Kane, Professor and Chairman, Department of Psychiatry, Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell” (from Amazon)
Clinicians recognize that monitoring psychotropic levels provides invaluable information to optimize therapy and track treatment adherence, but they lack formal training specifically focused on the use of plasma antipsychotic levels for these purposes. As new technologies emerge to rapidly provide these results, the opportunity to integrate this information into clinical care will grow. This practical handbook clarifies confusing concepts in the literature on use of antipsychotic levels, providing clear explanations for the logic underlying clinically relevant concepts such as the therapeutic threshold and the point of futility, and how these apply to individual antipsychotics. It offers accessible information on the expected correlation between dosages and trough levels, and also provides a clear explanation of how to use antipsychotic levels for monitoring oral antipsychotic adherence, and methods to help clinicians differentiate between poor adherence and variations in drug metabolism. An essential resource for psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, and mental health professionals worldwide.