Pharmacokinetics for the prescriber

Pharmacokinetics is a tool for describing the movement of drugs through the body over time, and deals with the processes of absorption from the site of administration, distribution throughout the body, metabolism or conjugation of the drug, and elimination from the body. Pharmacokinetics can be thought of as what the patient does to the drug (whereas pharmacodynamics is what the drug does to the patient). This article describes how understanding pharmacokinetics can help the clinician, and outlines the basic principles.