In the field of toxicology, a dose-response relationship describes how the toxicity of a substance changes with the amount of exposure. Traditionally, it was believed that the relationship was linear or monotonic, meaning that an increase in dose leads to a proportional increase in effect. However, non-monotonic dose responses (NMDRs) challenge this notion, as they imply that the relationship between dose and effect is not straightforward and can include decreases in effect with increasing dose, or other unexpected patterns.
