Control engineering for planning drug therapy.

An optimal drug input may be defined as producing an ideal therapeutic effect as closely as possible without exceeding predetermined safety limits on any adverse drug effects. The intensity and time patterns of the drug-elicited response are functions of the pharmacodynamic properties of the drug in the patient. Drug input optimisation can be considered as a control problem and the different control engineering techniques may serve to assist in planning/implementing drug dosage regimens. This paper reviews some problems associated with planning optimal drug therapy in different clinical context and illustrates the solution of such problems by clinical examples.