Tolerance

Tolerance is a condition that requires higher and higher doses of the drug to maintain a given effect. There is a reduction or lack of response to a certain stimulus when it is continuously or repeatedly exposed. The opposite is intolerance.

Cause

One of the causes of tolerance is the increased ability to break down the drug and eliminate it from the body.

Dependency

Tolerance drug is one of the symptoms of developing drug addiction (primarily to opiates). Growing tolerance to the drug means that the organism gradually reacts to the initially effective dose less, i.e. the dose of the drug must be increased to achieve the same effect. In opiate addictions, the tolerance to the drug increases significantly, to achieve the desired drug effect, the dose is increased to ten or fifteen times the original dose. In a person without an increased tolerance, such an increased dose would mean a very serious overdose or death.

For some drugs (stimulant drugs, hallucinogens), on the other hand, tolerance does not change much during the development of addiction.

Links

References

• LINCOVÁ, Dagmar, et al. Základní a aplikovaná farmakologie. 1. vydání. GALÉN, 2002. ISBN 80-7262-168-8