In
pharmacology
Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemica ...
, the term ceiling effect refers to the property of increasing doses of a given medication to have progressively smaller incremental effect (an example of
diminishing returns). Mixed
agonist-antagonist opioids
In pharmacology the term agonist-antagonist or mixed agonist/antagonist is used to refer to a drug which under some conditions behaves as an agonist (a substance that fully activates the receptor that it binds to) while under other conditions, beha ...
, such as
nalbuphine, serve as a classic example of the ceiling effect; increasing the dose of a narcotic frequently leads to smaller and smaller gains in relief of
pain
Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, ...
. In many cases, the severity of
side effects from a medication increases as the dose increases, long after its therapeutic ceiling has been reached.
The term is defined as "the phenomenon in which a drug reaches a maximum effect, so that increasing the drug dosage does not increase its effectiveness."
Sometimes drugs cannot be compared across a wide range of treatment situations because one drug has a ceiling effect.{{cn, date=September 2020
Sometimes the desired effect increases with dose, but
side-effects worsen or start being dangerous, and
risk to benefit ratio
In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environme ...
increases. This is because of occupation of all the receptors in a given specimen.
See also
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Agonist–antagonist opioids
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Buprenorphine
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Codeine
Codeine is an opiate and prodrug of morphine mainly used to treat pain, coughing, and diarrhea. It is also commonly used as a recreational drug. It is found naturally in the sap of the opium poppy, ''Papaver somniferum''. It is typically use ...
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Dose–response relationship
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Pain ladder
"Pain ladder", or analgesic ladder, was created by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a guideline for the use of drugs in the management of pain. Originally published in 1986 for the management of cancer pain, it is now widely used by medical p ...
*
Weber–Fechner law
References
External links
Is there a ceiling effect of transdermal buprenorphine? Preliminary data in cancer patientsClinical evidence for an LH ‘ceiling’ effect induced by administration of recombinant human LH during the late follicular phase of stimulated cycles in World Health Organization type I and type II anovulationAnalgesic effect of i.v. paracetamol: possible ceiling effect of paracetamol in postoperative pain
Pharmacodynamics