The main types of therapies

Since ancient times, various techniques and types of therapies have been used to improve the human body. Some of the therapeutic methods over time and the development of medical science have lost their significance, while others, on the contrary, have received scientific justification and widespread use in practice.

Therapy concept

This term has ancient Greek roots and translates as "treatment", "care". Therapy in the narrow and broad sense of the word means the treatment of diseases and the elimination of their symptoms. The second meaning of this term is a large section of medicine, the scope of which includes not only the treatment of pathologies of the organs of the human body, but also their study and diagnosis. Therapy as a medical discipline studies a wide range of diseases of internal organs and systems: respiratory, blood circulation, digestion, metabolism, urethra, etc. Therefore, general practitioners have the most extensive information about human health.

Therapy Classification

Modern medicine uses various types of therapy, which are very difficult to imagine in a single classification. The types of treatment are divided into groups taking into account a number of criteria, we will name the main ones:

• The approach to treatment (etiotropic, pathogenetic and symptomatic therapy).
• The method of medical care (drug therapy, surgery and types of intensive care).
• Scientific validity (traditional medicine and folk).
• The degree of innovation (conservative medicine, new and experimental types of treatment).
• Area of ​​discipline (psychotherapy, gastroenterology, cardiology, pediatric therapy, gynecology, infectious therapy, etc.).

Drug therapy

The vast majority of diseases require medical treatment. The following types of drug therapy are distinguished:

• Etiotropic. It is aimed at eradicating the causes of the disease - pathogenic microorganisms. The action of etiotropic drugs is the destruction or suppression of pathogenic microbes. This group of medicines includes antibiotics, antiviral and antiprotozoal drugs, sulfonamides. Etiotropic therapy includes several successive stages: identification of the pathogen, determination of the degree of sensitivity to the active substance of the drug, the appointment of treatment. An example of etiotropic therapy is the treatment with bactericidal preparations of pyelonephritis (inflammation of the kidneys caused by pathogenic microbes, in particular Escherichia coli).
• Pathogenetic therapy. Whatever types of diseases a patient might have, pathogenetic treatment is aimed at correcting functional disorders, improving metabolic mechanisms, and stimulating immunity. It is used in cases where the disease is caused not by an external pathogenic pathogen, but by a malfunction of some organ. Example: maintenance therapy for diabetes mellitus, which consists in periodically introducing a dose of insulin into the patient’s blood to make up for its deficiency due to insufficient production of the pancreas. A list of pathogenetic drugs is made up of drugs that affect the cardiovascular system, nervous system, stimulate digestion, normalize metabolism, and also diuretics. Varieties of pathogenetic therapy are acupuncture, lysotherapy, tissue, immunostimulating, etc.
• Symptomatic does not eliminate the cause of the pathology, it only alleviates the symptoms of the disease. It can be applied in addition to etiotropic and / or pathogenetic methods of treatment or separately, for example, in the last stages of cancer to alleviate the pain of the patient. The arsenal of symptomatic therapy includes painkillers and antispasmodics, antipyretic drugs.

Conservative therapy

Traditional, officially recognized medicine uses various types of treatment: chemotherapeutic drug therapy, physical methods.

Chemical and biological methods consist in exposing a patient to the body using chemically synthesized substances, natural-based medicines, as well as immunostimulating drugs.

Physical methods of conservative therapy include a number of non-drug techniques, which are often auxiliary in nature. These include:

• therapeutic massage, including all types of manual therapy;
• LFK - a set of physical exercises to restore the functions of the musculoskeletal system of a person;
• hydrotherapy: dousing, baths, Charcot's douches, wraps, etc .;
• hardware physiotherapy, consisting in exposure to the patient by radiation and electromagnetic waves: laser therapy, electrophoresis, radiotherapy, inductothermy, UHF therapy, phonophoresis.

Surgical therapy

As part of a treatment program, surgical intervention is often necessary. Surgical therapy goes beyond the traditional medical treatment, but since it also aims to eliminate pathologies, it may well be perceived as one of the types of therapy. The method is based on the separation and connection of the tissues of the human body with the help of special techniques and tools. It should be noted that a surgical operation almost always has medical support, however, the drugs used are not needed to eradicate the disease, but to ensure the technical execution of the procedure (anesthesia and painkillers, antipsychotics, tranquilizers, hormonal drugs).

Folk remedies

Traditional medicine went a completely different way than traditional. It was based on the centuries-old experience of mankind in the treatment of all sorts of ailments. Traditional medicine combines the types of therapies based on the use of any handy means and components of natural origin in the form of infusions of herbs, roots, decoctions, compresses, inhalations, etc. Often, alternative methods of therapy have no scientific justification, and therefore the effect of many drugs is doubtful or completely absent. The undoubted advantage of such therapy is the availability and cheapness of drugs.

Psychotherapy

If bodily ailments learned to treat in ancient times, then medicine thought about the danger of mental illness not so long ago. Until the 18th century, mental disorders were considered to be a purely personal drama of the patient, and at the very most that the doctors of that time could offer was isolation of the patient from society. Later, science found that mental illness can and should be treated. The main types of therapy in the field of psychiatry are as follows:

• Cognitive psychotherapy is the most practiced today. The method consists in creating conditions for the patient to re-evaluate the factors that led to depressive states. According to the concept, the specialist must find out what the patient’s thoughts caused a psychological disorder, and create the prerequisites for the formation of new, more rational thoughts in the patient’s subconscious.
• Hypnosis is a new method of psychotherapy, which until the end of the XIX century was not taken seriously. There are situations when a person burdened with difficult realities subconsciously puts a block on his emotions, feelings, and to identify, and most importantly, to cure a psychological disorder in this situation is extremely difficult. In order to help the patient abstract from reality, they resort to clinical hypnosis - a patient's drowsiness, which allows a dialogue between the hypnotist and the hypnotized and to reveal memories or facts from the life of the latter that led to mental disorders.
• Psychosocial therapy, which has many varieties: family psychotherapy, personality development trainings, art and dance therapy, personal psychoanalysis, etc.
• Treatment with antidepressants and psychotropic drugs is often combined with other therapeutic methods.

New Therapies

Medicine as a science does not stand still, daily research is being conducted around the world and new methods are being developed to treat a wide range of diseases. Tested and recognized therapies have found their niche in practicing medicine. Here are some of them:

• The method of neurolinguistic programming (NLP) - one of the newest methods of psychotherapy - arose at the end of the 20th century. The basis is the practical techniques of famous authors and specialists in the field of communication. Often NLP is practiced at trainings and seminars to improve personal qualities.
• Art therapy - was widely used in the last century and uses painting and drawing sessions as therapeutic methods. This is a real find for those who want to know themselves and at the same time improve their psycho-emotional state.
• Cryosacral therapy - originated at the beginning of the last century and is aimed at treating complex conditions of the human body caused by abnormal biorhythms. As it turned out, the skull consists of many bones, which at the junction do not completely ossify, but allow the skull to rhythmically decrease and increase in size, thus making “breathing” movements. It was also found that the skull in a healthy person makes 6-10 cycles per minute, violation of this cycle leads to a variety of consequences (immune and psychoneurological disorders, discomfort, anxiety, muscle tone disorders, etc.). In such a situation, the specialist corrects the biorhythm using various manual techniques, some of which can be described as barely noticeable touches to the patient's head.

Custom Therapies

The time for conservative treatments has passed. Today there are so many types of therapies that you can easily get confused in their diversity. Humanity began to use everything that at least in some way can improve health and physiological condition. Among these types of treatment there are those that not only have no scientific justification, but also cause surprise:

• Mud Therapy. Patients are smeared with mud, which is considered therapeutic and has a positive effect on the condition of the skin, joints and even the whole body.
• Hirudotherapy, the main therapeutic tool of which is the application of live leeches to the patient's body.
• Apitherapy - treatment with bee products: honey, wax, propolis.
• Aromatherapy - the patient inhales a pair of essential oils with a bactericidal and calming effect.
• Hobbies: embroidery, drawing, dancing, etc.
• Pet therapy - physical and emotional contact with pets.

Experimental therapy

Unfortunately, modern medicine is not yet able to help get rid of all ailments. Diseases that are not fully understood and for which there are no medicines yet are, of course, oncology, AIDS, complex genetic pathologies. Nevertheless, scientists are actively working in this direction and have even achieved some success. In the field of cancer, a number of techniques have been developed that are at the testing stage:

• Molecular therapy is used to treat myeloid leukemia. The main tool is the herpecin antibody, which helps to suppress cancer cells.
• Laser surgery - laser exposure to the tumor.
• Photodynamic therapy - irradiation of the affected organ with a laser beam after treatment with photosensitizing substances.
• Gene therapy is the substitution of defective genes.

Gene therapy opens up the possibility of treating not only cancer, but also hepatitis C, Embolus virus, autism, hereditary blindness, hemophilia and many other pathologies that were still considered incurable.

Summary

Summarizing the foregoing, I want to say that medicine has achieved tremendous results in the treatment of a wide variety of diseases - both physiological and mental. A variety of scientifically based and proven types of therapies were developed, along with which there were alternative, including methods unusual from the point of view of traditional medicine. Nevertheless, not all diseases are still undergoing successful treatment, and the main therapeutic discoveries in medicine are still to come.