Legislation controlling the naming of medications along with legislation setting standards for potency and safety are all attempts to protect the public from medication problems. Generic names are an attempt to standardize medication naming to incorporate something of the chemical makeup in a more pronounceable and memorable form. The control agencies and laws vary from country to country. The Health Protection Branch assures that medications which are sold legally in Canada have been developed and tested according to strict guidelines. BACK Dose-Response Medications are effective while the level of the Medication in the blood is in what is called the therapeutic range .
Effects increase gradually with increases in the blood level of the medication.
The top of the therapeutic range is referred to as the maximal efficacy because this blood level produces the most effect that is possible no matter how much more the blood level is increased. This would mean that a client could only have medication effects part of the time unless we could keep the blood level in the therapeutic range. Another way to maintain a therapeutic range is to give another dose before each previous dose is totally out of the body. Potency of a medication needs to be explained. Potency is only a measure of how much medication is needed to produce the desired effect.