Problem with multiple dose input

From: alison@c255.ucsf.EDU (ABoeckmann) Subject: Problem with multiple dose input Date: 28 Oct 1997 19:18:56 -0500 Probably you've all seen the email from Mick Looby re: multiple doses, and responses from Raymond Miller and Lewis Sheiner, so I won't repeat it. The wording in Guide VIII/ on-line help as quoted by Lewis is: 1 indicates that the dose is a steady state dose, and that the compartment amounts are to be reset to the steady-state amounts resulting from the given dose. Compartment amounts resulting from prior doses into the system are "zeroed out," ... etc Mick says: The dose into CMT 1 is not "prior" to the steady-state dose but is given at the same time (0 in this case). Furthermore, the reason I did not think of using SS=2 is the fact that I had (and still have) difficulty understanding the "help" text as it is written for this statement. Is this just me, or is this text a tad confusing? By "prior" we mean "on prior event records", which perforce includes prior (smaller) time values, but also includes event records having the same value of TIME that are encountered previously in the data file. Guide VIII/on-line help was never intended to be the sole source of information, but rather to be a brief summary for people to look up when they know pretty much how things work but have forgotten the details. In the case of Steady State dosing, the details and several examples are found in the referenced material, especially in Guide V: REFERENCES: Guide VI, section V.F (p. 57) REFERENCES: Guide V, section 6.8 (p. 57) I'm truly sorry to read about "nonmem rage". NONMEM/PREDPP is a complicated system, and understandably there is bound to be some frustration at times. Maybe we can fix the wording in Guide VIII for the next release. Would it be more understandable if Guide VIII were changed as follows? 1 indicates that the dose is a steady state dose, and that the compartment amounts are to be reset to the steady-state amounts resulting from the given dose. Compartment amounts resulting from prior dose event records are "zeroed out," ... etc ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ We are working on a new release of Guide VIII to accompany NONMEM V. If anyone has noticed mistakes, or has useful suggestions, this would be a good time to send them to me (nmconsult@c255.ucsf.edu). Needless to say, constructive suggestions are prefered to general remarks such as "unclear", "don't understand", etc. Alison