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Review
. 2025 Jun;398(6):6179-6191.
doi: 10.1007/s00210-025-03788-7. Epub 2025 Jan 10.

The clinical impact of chronopharmacology on current medicine

Mert Kaşkal  1 , Mustafa Sevim  2 , Gökay Ülker  3 , Caner Keleş  3 , Berna Terzioğlu Bebitoğlu  3
Affiliations
Review

The clinical impact of chronopharmacology on current medicine

Mert Kaşkal et al. Naunyn Schmiedebergs Arch Pharmacol. 2025 Jun.

Abstract

One of the goals of clinical pharmacology is to optimize patient treatment by adopting new treatment strategies which will increase the efficacy of the treatment and decrease the adverse effects of the drugs. In the literature, it has shown that the effectiveness and toxicity of medications can vary significantly based on when they are administered, making timing a crucial factor in treatment plans. Chronopharmacology a relatively new branch of clinical pharmacology focuses on adjusting drug administration times to enhance patient outcomes. Chronopharmacology is largely influenced by an individual's circadian rhythm which refers to periodic changes in biological processes depending on the time of the day. The chronopharmacology influences clinical practice, and the accumulating knowledge in this field will likely lead healthcare providers to adopt new strategies for drug treatment regimens. This review aims to summarize the impact of chronopharmacology particularly on current clinical practices and highlight the latest findings related to chronophysiological mechanisms.

Keywords: Chronopharmacodynamics; Chronopharmacokinetics; Chronophysiology; Circadian rhythm; Personalized medicine.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Physiological effects and medication to adapt the possible effects of circadian rhythm. Created in BioRender. Sevim, M. (2024) https://BioRender.com/y55p401
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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