[Clinico-chemical methods within a drug monitoring system in psychiatry (author's transl)].

Laboratory methods within a drug monitoring should provide maximum information with a minimum number of investigations. Greatest attention must be paid to the comparability of results between the institutions and over the whole length of the investigational period, i.e., possibly several years. This article concentrates on (a) selection of appropriate variables; (b) selection of appropriate methods and sampling times; (c) quality control and the problem of "normal values". A tentative selection of approx. 20 variables proposed for a drug monitoring in psychiatric patients. Clinico-chemical methods serve not only to detect adverse drug reactions but also to facilitate the interpretation of observed effects, e.g., in "risk-patients".