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Words for the ups and downs

The names given to medication fluctuation

These notes set out what the words exchanged in the clinic actually point at on a graph. Every article follows the same order — a one-line explanation, what it looks like on the graph, how people usually put it, things often discussed alongside it, what to write down, and what you could show your care team.

  1. The stretch when the medication feels like it is working · ON A common shorthand for the stretch of time when the body moves comparatively well.
  2. The stretch when the medication feels weak · OFF A shorthand for the stretch of time when movement feels heavy and the body does not follow.
  3. When the rise starts late · Delayed ON The point at which the response begins to rise after a dose is pushed later than usual.
  4. When the rise does not reach as high · Incomplete ON It does rise, but not as high as usual, and it stays at that lower level.
  5. When a dose brings no rise at all · ON Failure No meaningful rise appears from that dose. Worth telling apart from a late rise and from a low one.
  6. When the good stretch gets shorter · Wearing-off What rose once no longer holds as long as it used to, and comes down before the next dose is due.
  7. Movement you did not intend · Dyskinesia The word used for the body moving or swaying without you meaning it to.
  8. Muscles that stay contracted · Dystonia A muscle keeps contracting and will not let go, so a foot stiffens, toes curl, or a posture twists.
  9. Feet that stop as if stuck · Freezing Difficulty taking a first step, or feet stopping mid-walk as if glued to the floor.
  10. The morning stretch before things get moving · Morning akinesia / Morning OFF The stretch between waking and the first dose taking effect. The two terms are not always used to mean the same thing.
  11. Lower response in the afternoon · Afternoon decline The same dosing pattern as the morning, yet the afternoon sits lower. In preparation

10 articles are published so far and the rest are in preparation. They go up one at a time as they are ready.

The Korean site carries more than these — how to read the graphs, how to use the app, and longer reading. 약효 이해하기