General Pharmacology: TERMINOLOGY

GRADED RESPONSE CURVE: a continually increasing response of a single individual as response to increasing dose.

QUANTAL RESPONSE CURVE: amount of drug required to produce the same discreet response of different individuals, generally expressed as the number of individuals responding vs. the log dose.

DOSE-RESPONSE CURVE: See graded response curve (handout fig. 2)

POPULATION-RESPONSE CURVE: See quantal response curve (handout fig. 6)

ED₅₀: median effective dose, usually the dose required to produce therapeutic response in 50% of the population.

ED₁₀, ED₉₀, etc.: dose required to produce a given effect (usually therapeutic response) in 10% or 90%, etc. of the population, respectively.

LD₅₀: median lethal dose to kill 50% of the population.

THERAPEUTIC INDEX: LD₅₀/ED₅₀, we’d like this to be greater than 10, for a safe drug.

CERTAIN SAFETY FACTOR: LD₁/ED₉₉, we’d like this to be greater than 1, for a safe drug.

Category: Pharmacology Notes