lowdose

Low-dose refers to the administration of a substance at a reduced amount relative to standard therapeutic doses. The term is used across medicine, radiology, and research to describe strategies that seek to minimize toxicity while maintaining or enhancing clinical benefit. Dosing regimens can be fixed to a low daily amount, or structured as intermittent or metronomic schedules that sustain exposure over time with lower peak concentrations.

Medical applications include preventive and chronic therapies. Low-dose aspirin (often 75–100 mg daily) is prescribed for selected patients to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events, though recommendations vary by guideline and patient risk. In radiology and oncology, low-dose approaches include low-dose radiation therapy for certain benign conditions and metronomic chemotherapy, where continuous low doses aim to suppress tumor angiogenesis while limiting systemic toxicity.

Other areas include low-dose regimens of certain medications such as naltrexone in sub-therapeutic levels studied for autoimmune and pain conditions, and the broader practice of microdosing in psychedelic research, where sub-perceptual doses are used outside standard therapeutic contexts. The efficacy and safety of such practices remain under investigation and are controversial in some jurisdictions.

Dosing decisions depend on drug characteristics, patient factors, and therapeutic goals. Drugs with narrow therapeutic windows or vulnerable populations can be particularly sensitive to dosing changes, making careful monitoring and individualized adjustment essential.

See also: dose-response, pharmacology, radiotherapy dose.