Posted by Jost on September 24, 2006, at 11:13:14
In reply to Re: how to know if i reach/maintain therapeutic le » iforgotmypassword, posted by SLS on September 24, 2006, at 7:45:40
Also: the discussions of blood testing and TDM confuse (or discuss in a rather overly co-mingles way) two (and even three) issues:
1. therapeutic levels
2. harmful levels
3. compliance issues
Leaving out compliance issues, though, it's one thing to say that you believe that above a certain level of drug may cause harmful effects (which is more true of lithium, in the discussions than tricyclics, although I don't know enough about TCA to know if it applies there, too).
It's an entirely different thing to say that there'a level that should (or does) cause a therapeutic effect. Clearly, you aren't getting a therapeutic effect-- so no matter what your blood level, that level doesn't correlate with one.
I assume that your pdoc is afraid of some harmful reaction, and that this is the reason for not giving you a higher dose.
Has s/he mentioned what specifically the problem/s might be? Because then possibly you could take more, at a slow upward titration, with more careful monitoring for the SE.
Jost
poster:Jost
thread:687995
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060919/msgs/688650.html