Weekly dosing

Discuss once-a-week dosing of certain drugs. 

Pegylated interferon is interferon that is attached to a polyethylene glycol molecule that increases the half-life of the drug, thus allowing once-weekly dosing versus thrice-weekly administration required for the unmodified formulation. Pegylated interferon is well tolerated and is superior in efficacy to unmodified interferon for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B.26... 

Dosing and Administration Dose, frequency, and route of administration differ between the beta interferon products (see Table 26-3). 0 Dose-response curves have been observed with the beta interferons. However, it is not known if the total weekly dose or the frequency of administration is most important.37... 

Twice weekly for 9 monthsc,d Directly observed therapy (DOT) must be used with twice-weekly dosing. B (II) B (II)... 

Week-old poults fed a purified corn starch, isolated soy protein diet supplemented with 50 to 800 mg/kg ration for 3 weeks Dose-dependent increase in mortality and decrease in growth 10... 

Daily gavage of 50, 500, or 2500 pg/kg BW for 102 weeks Dose-related mortality in males during first year and in females during entire study significant lethality in the 500 and 2500 pg/kg groups. No increased incidence of microscopic neoplastic or nonneoplastic lesions in treated rats decreased creatinine phosphokinase levels in treated rats 28... 

Single ip injection of 50 or 250 mg PCB 153/kg BW of juveniles 20-60 g BW livers examined after 4 weeks Dose-dependent induction of hepatic EROD activity, CYP1A protein, and CYP1A1 mRNA content 17... 

Usually patients are treated for 12 to 24 months before discontinuation (over 4 to 6 months) is attempted. Many patients require long-term therapy. Successful maintenance with single weekly doses of fluoxetine has been described. 

For fluphenazine decanoate, an esterified formulation in sesame seed oil, the simplest conversion is the Stimmel method, which uses 1.2 times the oral daily dose for stabilized patients, rounding up to the nearest 12.5-mg interval, administered IM in weekly doses for the first 4 to 6 weeks (1.6 times the oral daily dose for patients who are more acutely ill). Subsequently, fluphenazine decanoate may be administered once every 2 to 3 weeks. Oral fluphenazine may be overlapped for 1 week. 

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