Dose of a Medicinal Preparation

a certain quantity of a medicine administered to the organism.

Doses are set depending on the age of the patient and the individual features of the organism, as well as the nature and course of the illness. For toxic and strong medicines, the USSR State Pharmacopoeia has set the maximum doses, both single (for one taking) and daily. These doses must not be exceeded without special indications (for example, the need to quickly create a certain concentration of the medicine in the organism, a so-called shock dose). The dose of a drug that causes poisoning is termed toxic, and one entailing death is a fatal, or lethal, dose. A medicine is usually dosed in grams and fractions of a gram (centigrams, milligrams, or micrograms). Liquid medicines are dosed in milliliters, as well as spoonfuls (a tablespoon is 15-25 milliliters [ml], a dessert spoon is 8-10 ml, and a teaspoon is 4-5 ml) and drops (an average of 0.05 g). The doses of antibiotics, certain hormonal preparations, and vitamins are also given in units of action (UA) and international units (IU).