LOADING DOSE

For a drug to work effectively, a patient needs to have a plasma concentration of that drug within the therapeutic range. On starting a drug regimen, it will take time for the patient's plasma drug concentration to build up to the required level.

To reduce the time it takes for the plasma drug concentration to reach the level required, you can give a patient an initial dose which is higher than the maintenance dose. This initial higher dose is called a loading dose.

A loading dose is especially useful if a drug has a long half-life since a long half-life means that it will take a long time to reach the steady state concentration.

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