Pharmacodynamics and Pharmacokinetics of Thiopental

Overview

Journal Clin Pharmacokinet

Specialty Pharmacology

Date 1998 Sep 18

PMID 9739479

Citations 17

Authors

H Russo

F Bressolle

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Thiopental is an ultra short-acting barbiturate which remains the standard against which other induction agents are judged; it is also indicated for the therapy of brain hypoxic-ischaemia injuries and status epilepticus. Aspects of drug distribution that govern the onset and end of drug effect have been intensively studied to determine which parameters (in patient characteristics, diseases and administration modalities) influence effective dose and concentrations in individual patients. Thiopental has been used as a reference for pharmacokinetic and/or pharmacodynamic models in the study of rapid and short acting effect drugs. In anaesthesiology the pharmacokinetics of thiopental are described as linear; when doses and duration of treatment increase, nonlinear pharmacokinetics occur because of the saturation and/or the induction of the metabolism.

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