The World Health Organization's ATC classification organizes medical drugs based on therapeutic properties, chemical composition, and anatomy. It helps make essential medicines readily available globally and is widely used in the pharmaceutical industry.
The DDD is the assumed average maintenance dose per day for a drug used for its main indication in adults. The DDD is a unit of measurement and does not necessarily reflect the recommended or Prescribed Daily Dose. Therapeutic doses for individual patients and patient groups will often differ from the DDD as they will be based on individual characteristics (such as age, weight, ethnic differences, type and severity of disease) and pharmacokinetic considerations.
Lactulose is a synthetic disaccharide which is metabolised by gastro-intestinal bacterial flora to low molecular weight acids (chiefly lactic and acetic acids). There is no endogenous metabolising enzyme in the human gut. Its mode of action in constipation is as an osmotic agent producing soft stools.