Medication dosage in different sized adults - how does that work then?

[SirChenjin]

So - here's a stupide question for you. I'm 5 foot 1, 9 stone and DH is 6' 1" and around 16 stone. Dosage on my (sleeping) tablets says 'adults take 2' - how does it take account of the different height/weights of adults? I don't want to sleep until Saturday.

Good question. I was given some Diazioan a few years ago for a severe back issue. I was away with the fairies at our local park, literally hugging trees. Thankfully I bumped into a friend who took me home. My GP had miscalculated the weight/dosage ratio and I'd had much too strong a dose.
I'm guessing with something like a shelf bought sleeping tablet the weight/dosage ratio. Isn't quite so important.
I'd love to hear an informed answer though. Mine's just a guess

I think it can depend on the medication and how that particular one is processed - sometimes your body size is important, sometimes the amount of body fat you have is important, and sometimes it's more to do with how efficient your liver is.

I'm 5' 3 and 9 stone and was told to take only 1 tablet (standard dose is 2) and that works fine for me.

Anyone else?!

Fwiw I thought "bugger it", took 2 sleeping tablets as per the packet instructions and woke up feeling amazing!

If it's zolpidem, by the way, women have a lower maximum done than men.

This is an issue very close to my heart as I have a DD who has multiple health problems (life limiting condition) and is on quite a lot of medication. When she came under paediatrics, everything was calculated on body weight - mg/kg. As soon as she came under adult physicians, all that went out of the window - save for the fact that I constantly remind them that at the size of an 11 year old and 33kg in weight she is not adult sized.

I think the 'adult' dose is based on the fact that the liver is fully functioning as an adult liver and can metabolise the drugs regardless of weight. However, having read of a Coroners case for a little old lady who died from an overdose of Paracetemol which was administered in hospital longterm without regard for her low body weight, I'm not taking any chances and still get Doctors to calculate on bodyweight even though my DD is now an adult.

I'm a vet and I wonder this too

We have patients ranging from a few grammes to several hundred kg and although there's often a bit of allometric scaling for very large animal patients most drugs are dosed on a mg/kg basis.

I'm always bemused when GPs prescribe antibiotics etc. as 2 tablets twice a day regardless of whether you're 40kg or 90 kg!

To be fair, with animals it's sometimes a case of random guessing as to what dose they're receiving. It's super hard to get baytril into a hamster.

The pint is we calculate doses to the correct body weight, not depending on the owners success at administering.
I suspect it's also pretty tricky getting penicillin in a toddler, but paediatricians calculate in the same way as vets. It's only human adults who are magically all the same dose

Oh no, I do agree entirely Sunshine, just bitter memories I just thought it was funny that those animals (both non-human and young-human) which are hardest to insert the correct dose into are the very ones we bother calculating custom doses for.

I'm on a med which they consultant said needed to be increased due to it being 'weight specific'. He said this twice. I did understand the first time. Some meds matter more than others, I believe.

By that I mean the 'weight specificness' is more important with some than with others.

Just come back onto this after the password shenanigans of the past few days...glad to see it's not just me who's confused!

I'm going down to the pharmacist later to collect a prescription - I might ask him if he knows