A therapeutic effect is a consequence of a medical treatment Therapy , or treatment, is the attempted remediation of a health problem, usually following a diagnosis. In the medical field, it is synonymous with the word "treatment". Among psychologists, the term may refer specifically to psychotherapy or "talk therapy" of any kind, the results of which are judged to be desirable and beneficial. This is true whether the result was expected, unexpected, or even an unintended consequence In the social sciences, unintended consequences are outcomes that are not the outcomes intended by a particular action. The unintended outcomes may be positive or negative. The concept has long existed but was named and popularised in the 20th century by the American sociologist, Robert K. Merton of the treatment. An adverse effect In medicine, an adverse effect is a harmful and undesired effect resulting from a medication or other intervention such as surgery. An adverse effect may be termed a "side effect", when judged to be secondary to a main or therapeutic effect, and may result from an unsuitable or incorrect dosage or procedure, which could be due to medical, on the other hand, is a harmful and undesired effect.
What constitutes a therapeutic effect versus a side effect is a matter of both the nature of the situation in which a treatment is used and the goals of treatment. There is no inherent difference between therapeutic and undesired side effects; both responses are behavioral Behavior, or behaviour , refers to the actions of a system or organism , usually in relation to its environment, which includes the other systems or organisms around as well as the physical environment. It is the response of the system or organism to various stimuli or inputs, whether internal or external, conscious or subconscious, overt or/physiologic Physiology is the science of the functioning of living systems. It is a subcategory of biology. In physiology, the scientific method is applied to determine how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells and biomolecules carry out the chemical or physical function that they have in a living system. The word physiology is from Ancient Greek: φύσις changes which occur as a response to the treatment strategy or agent. However, those changes which are viewed as desirable, given the situation, are called therapeutic; those undesirable for the situation are viewed as unfavorable.
Contents |
Scope of treatments
Many people think of therapeutic and undesired side effects as only applying to medications A pharmaceutical drug, also referred to as medicine, medication or medicament, can be loosely defined as any chemical substance intended for use in the medical diagnosis, cure, treatment, or prevention of disease, drugs A drug, broadly speaking, is any substance that, when absorbed into the body of a living organism, alters normal bodily function. There is no single, precise definition, as there are different meanings in drug control law, government regulations, medicine, and colloquial usage or supplements, perhaps because pharmacology Pharmacology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of drug action. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and chemicals that affect normal or abnormal biochemical function. If substances have medicinal properties, they are considered pharmaceuticals. The field encompasses drug approaches are more often more rigorously evaluated by comparison with placebo A placebo is a sham or simulated medical intervention that can produce a placebo effect. In medical research, placebos depend on the use of controlled and measured deception. Common placebos are inert tablets, sham surgery, and other procedures based on false information. In one common placebo procedure, a patient is given an inert pill, told that treatments, but this is not the case. It applies to any treatment approach, including surgery Surgery is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, to help improve bodily function or appearance, and sometimes for religious reasons. An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical procedure, operation, or simply, physical therapy Physical therapy is a health profession that assesses and provides treatment to individuals to develop, maintain and restore maximum movement and function throughout life. This includes providing treatment in circumstances where movement and function are threatened by aging, injury, disease or environmental factors, psychotherapy Psychotherapy, or personal counseling with a psychotherapist, is an intentional interpersonal relationship used by trained psychotherapists to aid a client or patient in problems of living, treatment with compounds, faith healing Faith healing is the belief that religious faith can bring about healing—either through prayers or rituals that, according to adherents, evoke a divine presence and power toward correcting disease and disability. Belief in divine intervention in illness or healing is related to religious belief. In common usage, "faith healing" refers, hypnosis Hypnosis is a mental state or imaginative role-enactment (non-state theory) usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary instructions and suggestions. Hypnotic suggestions may be delivered by a hypnotist in the presence of the subject, or may be self-administered (", holistic methods, etc.; any method of which one can conceive.
The administration of a compound was selected for the pharmacologic example below because this form of treatment is more readily checked with the comparative treatment versus the placebo approach designed so that people are often unable to recognized the difference, at least at a conscious Consciousness is variously defined as subjective experience, awareness, the ability to experience "feeling", wakefulness, or the executive control system of the mind. It is an umbrella term that may refer to a variety of mental phenomena. Although humans realize what everyday experiences are, consciousness refuses to be defined, or group awareness level. Other therapeutic methods are typically more difficult to test because the test subjects can more easily recognize the key aspect of treatment which is being tested; it thus becomes far more difficult to apply the placebo control methodology. The placebo effect A placebo is a sham medical intervention that produces a placebo effect. In medical research, placebos depend on the use of controlled and measured deception. Common placebos are inert tablets, sham surgery, and other procedures based on false information. In one common placebo procedure, a patient is given an inert pill, told that it may improve is always relevant in all treatments; behavior and symptoms do change, however the presumed mechanism may primarily be the power of the mind which controls behavior and perception all the time, and the fact that if an individual believes that their situation will change then their situation actually does change.
To maximize the therapeutic effects and minimize the side effects of any treatment, recognition and quantification of the situation, in multiple dimensions, is a critical prerequisite. There are many situations in which the effects of a treatment, both those often viewed as both desirable and undesirable can be used in combination with other treatments in a complex strategy so that, for the individual being treated, the best end results actually depend on side effects contributing to the overall therapeutic benefit. Achieving this reflects a higher degree of physician and patient interactive relationship, trust, sophistication and skill. The same principles applies to all agents, including what most people view as simply food, water, air and oxygen. Situation, timing and great familiarity of the multiple usual responses to agents is critically important for wisely selecting all treatments. Maintaining and improving health strongly depends on promoting desirable effects while lessening the impact of undesirable effects of many interacting issues. However, the number of interacting issues, powerfully influenced by internal individual control mechanisms, make understanding and knowing all the issues a mind-boggling complex task which, at least in this day and age, is never totally understandable. There are simply too many complex interacting issues, never totally knowable, definable and predictable.
Pharmacology example
For example, it widely promoted that "natural" or "organic" agents are more healthy. However, everything in the world has multiple and varying responses when used; both desirable and undesirable effects are inherent parts of the total response. Even water Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. Its molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state, water vapor or steam – on which all life on earth depends – can have undesirable, even fatal effects; while increased intake of water can save a dehydrated Dehydration is defined as an excessive loss of body fluid. It is literally the removal of water (Ancient Greek: ὕδωρ hýdōr) from an object, however in physiological terms, it entails a deficiency of fluid within an organism patient, too much water can lead to water intoxication Water intoxication is a potentially fatal disturbance in brain functions that results when the normal balance of electrolytes in the body is pushed outside of safe limits by over-consumption of water, sometimes resulting in death, such as in severe pulmonary edema Pulmonary edema , or oedema (British English; both words from the Greek οἴδημα), is fluid accumulation in the lungs. It leads to impaired gas exchange and may cause respiratory failure. It is due to either failure of the heart to remove fluid from the lung circulation ("cardiogenic pulmonary edema") or a direct injury to the lung.
As a simple example, the therapeutic effect of diphenhydramine Diphenhydramine hydrochloride is a first generation antihistamine mainly used to treat allergies. Like most other first generation antihistamines, the drug also has a powerful hypnotic effect, and for this reason is often used as a non-prescription sleep aid and a mild anxiolytic. The drug also acts as an antiemetic. It is produced and marketed, when used for nasal congestion Nasal congestion is the blockage of the nasal passages usually due to membranes lining the nose becoming swollen from inflamed blood vessels. It is also known as nasal blockage, nasal obstruction, blocked nose, stuffy nose, or stuffed up nose, is to lessen mucous membrane The mucous membranes are linings of mostly endodermal origin, covered in epithelium, which are involved in absorption and secretion. They line various body cavities that are exposed to the external environment and internal organs. They are at several places continuous with skin: at the nostrils, the mouth, the lips, the eyelids, the ears, the secretions and the side effect is drowsiness Somnolence is a state of near-sleep, a strong desire for sleep, or sleeping for unusually long periods (cf. hypersomnia). It has two distinct meanings, referring both to the usual state preceding falling asleep, and the chronic condition referring to being in that state independent of a circadian rhythm. The disorder characterized by the latter. However, when used for insomnia Insomnia is a symptom that can accompany several sleep, medical and psychiatric disorders, characterized by persistent difficulty falling asleep and/or difficulty staying asleep. Insomnia is typically followed by functional impairment while awake, as in many over-the-counter preparations, the therapeutic effect of diphenhydramine is drowsiness and the side effect is mucous membrane dryness, which is undesirable, especially if the person using the agent for sleep is already suffering from dry membranes. The more important issue is not the agent, but the situation in which the therapeutic agent is used; a change in the situation can easily totally reverse what is usually considered a therapeutic versus an undesirable side effect.
Diphenhydramine was originally marketed under the brand name Benadryl in the early 1950s. When taken orally, it typically induces two behavioral responses: (1) drying of mucous membranes The mucous membranes are linings of mostly endodermal origin, covered in epithelium, which are involved in absorption and secretion. They line various body cavities that are exposed to the external environment and internal organs. They are at several places continuous with skin: at the nostrils, the mouth, the lips, the eyelids, the ears, the, potentially helpful in cases of increased nasal congestion and (2) drowsiness Somnolence is a state of near-sleep, a strong desire for sleep, or sleeping for unusually long periods (cf. hypersomnia). It has two distinct meanings, referring both to the usual state preceding falling asleep, and the chronic condition referring to being in that state independent of a circadian rhythm. The disorder characterized by the latter. Diphenhydramine was promoted for reducing nasal congestion, thus response 1 was the considered the therapeutic effect. Since response 2, the drowsiness response, was typically not viewed as desirable, drowsiness was termed a side effect.
When diphenhydramine is used as treatment, these two effects, individual responses, are always bound together and cannot be separated. Even though the dose A dose is a quantity of something that may impact an organism biologically; the greater the quantity, the larger the dose. In nutrition, the term is usually applied to how much of a specific nutrient is in a person's diet or in a particular food, meal, or dietary supplement. In medicine, the term is usually applied to the quantity of a drug or can be changed and the relative degree of the two responses may be reduced or increased and the degree of the two different responses may be somewhat different at different doses, the two responses cannot be separated. For simplicity of illustration, only two typical responses are mentioned. For completeness, be aware that as with most treatments people usually exhibit additional behavioral responses to diphenhydramine beyond the two mentioned.
Reducing complexity
The desire to simplify clinical situations and variables is one of the important reasons that physicians often prefer highly refined and regulated prescription drug A prescription medication is a licensed medicine that is regulated by legislation to require a prescription before it can be obtained. The term is used to distinguish it from over-the-counter drugs which can be obtained without a prescription. Different jurisdictions have different definitions of what constitutes a prescription drug preparations, as opposed to less refined and regulated products, often marketed as "natural" to imply safety.
Products from nature are essentially always complex mixtures of large numbers of different chemical agents, many only partially understood in term of usual desirable and undesirable responses, relationships of these effects to specific doses and with varying amounts of dose present within any given sample available.
The pharmaceutical A pharmaceutical drug, also referred to as medicine, medication or medicament, can be loosely defined as any chemical substance intended for use in the medical diagnosis, cure, treatment, or prevention of disease industry highly purifies, concentrates and sometimes makes very controlled modifications of agents obtained from natural sources, when there is no alternative source, so as to select out and greatly reduce the variables in the treatment agent offered. Ratios of relative responses, often summarized using the concept therapeutic index The therapeutic index , is a comparison of the amount of a therapeutic agent that causes the therapeutic effect to the amount that causes death. Quantitatively, it is the ratio given by the lethal dose divided by the therapeutic dose. A therapeutic index is the lethal dose of a drug for 50% of the population (LD50) divided by the minimum effective, are utilized to help understand and communicate treatment responses.
A pharmaceutical grade agent does not make the patient any more simple but it does greatly simplify, narrow and make more definable and predictable both the usual desirable and undesirable effects of the treatment agent, based on careful tracking of the responses of many individuals who have taken the agent, in widely varying amounts and situations, in the past. This purification can greatly improve the probability for both the patient and the physician that the resulting responses to the treatment are likely to be more predictable and controllable.
References
- "Medline Plus" (HTML). United Stated Federal Government National Library of Medicine and the National Intitues of Health. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginformation.html.
Categories: Medical treatments | Pharmacology Pharmacology (in Greek: pharmacon meaning drug, and logos (λόγος) meaning science) is the study of how chemical substances interact with living systems. If substances have medicinal properties, they are considered pharmaceuticals. The field encompasses drug composition and properties, interactions, toxicology, therapy, and medical | Medical statistics Categories: Fields of application of statistics | Medical informatics | Epidemiology | Health economics
Pharmaceutical Technology Magazine
So far, the method has been proven only in cell culture, but the team anticipates that it can be used to fight other cancers by changing the therapeutic ...
167px x 520px | 17.00kB
[source page]
point stimulation can also excite nerve coarse fiber disturb cortex causing brain adjustment and cover effect Therefore it can ease pain keep calm and improve sleep
