[Management of the atypical antipsychotic olanzapine in a clinical environment with particular regard to therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) in a German State hospital]

Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) has been established at BKH Augsburg (psychiatric district hospital) since January 2001. According to Olanzapine product information the following illustration shows the evaluation (n = 216) of various parameters of the TDM requirements of Olanzapine.Items examined include "classification according to diagnoses", "reason for requirement", "severity of disease", "therapeutic effect" and "side-effects". In addition, serum concentration, daily dosage, clinical assessment (Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale), age, height and weight of patients will be presented.Clearly sick patients, 52 % of them between 20 and 30 years old, were less compliant and achieved only a moderate therapeutic effect.TDM is mainly assessed to control compliance. However, more specific and more personalized TDM would be more useful.