Pharmacometrics
Encyclopedia
Pharmacometrics uses models based on pharmacology
Pharmacology
Pharmacology is the branch of medicine and biology concerned with the study of drug action. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and chemicals that affect normal or abnormal biochemical function...

, physiology
Physiology
Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...

 and disease
Disease
A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune...

 for quantitative analysis of interactions between drugs and patients. This involves pharmacokinetics
Pharmacokinetics
Pharmacokinetics, sometimes abbreviated as PK, is a branch of pharmacology dedicated to the determination of the fate of substances administered externally to a living organism...

, pharmacodynamics
Pharmacodynamics
Pharmacodynamics is the study of the biochemical and physiological effects of drugs on the body or on microorganisms or parasites within or on the body and the mechanisms of drug action and the relationship between drug concentration and effect...

 and disease progression with a focus on populations and variability
Variability
The term variability, "the state or characteristic of being variable", describes how spread out or closely clustered a set of data is. This may be applied to many different subjects:*Climate variability...

,

Pharmacometrics is defined as the science that quantifies drug, disease and trial information to aid efficient drug development, regulatory decisions and rational drug treatment in patients.

Drug models describe the relationship between exposure (or pharmacokinetics
Pharmacokinetics
Pharmacokinetics, sometimes abbreviated as PK, is a branch of pharmacology dedicated to the determination of the fate of substances administered externally to a living organism...

), response (or pharmacodynamics
Pharmacodynamics
Pharmacodynamics is the study of the biochemical and physiological effects of drugs on the body or on microorganisms or parasites within or on the body and the mechanisms of drug action and the relationship between drug concentration and effect...

) for both desired and undesired effects. See also dose-response
Dose-response relationship
The dose-response relationship, or exposure-response relationship, describes the change in effect on an organism caused by differing levels of exposure to a stressor after a certain exposure time...

.
Disease models describe the time course of disease and placebo
Placebo
A placebo is a simulated or otherwise medically ineffectual treatment for a disease or other medical condition intended to deceive the recipient...

 effects. Disease and drug models are used to understand the relationship between treatment, biomarker changes and clinical outcomes.
Trial models describe variations from the nominal trial protocol due to things such as patient dropout and lack of adherence to the dosing regimen.

A major focus of pharmacometrics is to understand variability in drug response. Variability may be predictable (e.g. due to differences in body weight or kidney function) or apparently unpredictable (a reflection of current lack of knowledge).

The first professor of pharmacometrics was Mats Karlsson Gotland
Gotland
Gotland is a county, province, municipality and diocese of Sweden; it is Sweden's largest island and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, the region makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area...

, Uppsala University.
Reference:
http://www.fmhs.auckland.ac.nz/sms/pharmacology/holford/projects/pharmacometrics.aspx
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