Transdermal iontophoresis-A quantitative and qualitative study

The use of enhancers to increase the drug molecules penetration into target tissues is a usual technique in drug delivery. In transdermal drug delivery, electric fields are often used to increase the drug transport through the skin. In this paper we study a drug delivery mechanism from a reservoir which is in contact with the skin. We assume that the drug transport in the coupled system is enhanced by a small electric field that induces a convective field. We establish energy estimates for the coupled system and we propose a semi-analytical discrete coupled model that mimics the continuous model. The qualitative behaviour of the system is illustrated.