Since ancient times, various methods and types of therapies have been used to improve the human body. Some of the therapeutic methods have lost their significance over time and the development of medical science, while others, on the contrary, have received scientific justification and are widely used in practice.
The concept of therapy
This term has ancient Greek roots and is translated 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 major branch 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, circulatory, digestive, metabolic, urinary, etc. Therefore, general practitioners have the most extensive information about human he alth.
Classification of therapies
Modern medicine uses various types of therapy that are very difficult to imagine inform of a single classification. Types of treatment are divided into groups, taking into account a number of criteria, we will name the main ones:
- Approach to treatment (etiotropic, pathogenetic and symptomatic therapy).
- Method of care (medication, surgery, and intensive care).
- Scientific validity (traditional medicine and folk).
- Degree of innovation (conservative medicine, new and experimental treatments).
- Discipline area (psychotherapy, gastroenterology, cardiology, pediatric therapy, gynecology, infection therapy, etc.).
Drug Therapy
Many diseases overwhelmingly require medical treatment. There are the following types of drug therapy:
- 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: identifying the pathogen, determining the degree of sensitivity to the active substance of the drug, prescribing treatment. An example of etiotropic therapy is the treatment of pyelonephritis (inflammation of the kidneys caused by pathogenic microbes, in particular E. coli) with bactericidal drugs.
- Pathogenetic therapy. What types of diseases would not arise in a patient, pathogenetic treatment is aimed at correctingfunctional disorders, improvement of metabolic mechanisms, stimulation of immunity. It is used in cases where the disease is not caused by an external pathogenic agent, but by a malfunction of some organ. Example: maintenance therapy of diabetes mellitus, which consists in the periodic introduction of a dose of insulin into the patient's blood to make up for its deficiency due to insufficient production by the pancreas. The list of pathogenetic drugs is made up of drugs that affect the cardiovascular system, the nervous system, stimulate digestion, normalize metabolism, as well as 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 used in addition to etiotropic and / or pathogenetic methods of treatment or separately, for example, in the last stages of oncological diseases to alleviate the pain of the patient. The arsenal of symptomatic therapy includes painkillers and antispasmodics, antipyretics.
Conservative Therapy
Traditional, officially recognized medicine uses different types of treatment: therapy with drugs of chemical and biological nature, physical methods.
Chemical-biological methods consist in influencing the patient's body with the help of chemically synthesized substances, medicines on a natural basis, as well as immunostimulatingdrugs.
Physical methods of conservative therapy include a number of non-drug techniques, which are very often of an auxiliary nature. These include:
- therapeutic massage, including all types of manual therapy;
- LFK - a set of physical exercises to restore the functions of the human musculoskeletal system;
- hydrotherapy: douches, baths, power showers, wraps, etc.;
- hardware physiotherapy, which consists in exposing the patient to radiation and electromagnetic waves: laser therapy, electrophoresis, radiotherapy, inductothermy, UHF therapy, phonophoresis.
Surgical Therapy
Surgical intervention is often required as part of a treatment program. Surgical therapy goes beyond traditional medical treatment, but since it is also designed 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 medication, but 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).
Therapy with folk remedies
Traditional medicine has taken a completely different path than traditional medicine. In herthe basis was laid down by the centuries-old experience of mankind in the field of treatment of all ailments. Traditional medicine combines the types of therapies based on the use of all sorts of handy tools and components of natural origin in the form of herbal infusions, roots, decoctions, compresses, inhalations, etc. Often, traditional therapy methods have no scientific justification, and therefore the effect of many drugs is doubtful or absent altogether. The undoubted advantage of such therapy is the availability and low cost of medicines.
Psychotherapy
If they learned to treat bodily ailments in antiquity, then medicine thought about the danger of mental illness not so long ago. Until the 18th century, mental disorders were considered a purely personal drama of the patient, and the most that doctors of that time could offer was the isolation of the patient from society. Later, science found out 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 reassess the factors that led to depressive states. According to the concept, the specialist must find out which thoughts of the patient caused the psychological disorder, and create the preconditions for the formation of new, more rational thoughts in the patient's subconscious.
- Hypnosis is a new method of psychotherapy that was not taken seriously until the end of the 19th century. There are situations when a person, burdened with difficult realities, subconsciously puts a blockon their 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 state of half-sleep of the patient, which allows you to conduct a dialogue between the hypnotist and the hypnotized and identify memories or facts from the life of the latter that led to mental disorders.
- Psychosocial therapy, which has many varieties: family therapy, personality development trainings, art and dance therapy, personality psychoanalysis, etc.
- Treatment with antidepressants and psychotropic drugs is often combined with other therapies.
New Therapies
Medicine as a science does not stand still, daily research is being carried out around the world and new methods are being developed to treat a wide range of diseases. Tested and recognized therapies have carved their own niche in the practice of medicine. Here are some of them:
- Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), one of the newest methods of psychotherapy, emerged at the end of the 20th century. It is based on the practical techniques of famous authors and specialists in the field of communication. Often NLP is practiced in trainings and seminars for the improvement of personal qualities.
- Art therapy - has become widespread in the last century and uses painting and drawing sessions as therapeutic techniques. This is a real find for those who want to know themselves andsimultaneously improve your 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 incorrect biorhythms. As it turned out, the skull consists of many bones, which at the junction do not completely ossify, but allow the cranium to rhythmically decrease and increase in size, thus making "breathing" movements. It was also found that the skull of a he althy person makes 6-10 cycles per minute, the 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 on the patient's head.
Custom Therapies
The time for conservative treatments is over. Today there are so many types of therapies that it is easy to get confused in their diversity. Mankind began to use everything that is somehow able to improve well-being and physiological state. Among these treatments, there are those that not only have no scientific basis, 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 agent of whichis the application of live leeches to the patient's body.
- Apitherapy - treatment with bee products: honey, wax, propolis.
- Aromatherapy - the patient inhales the vapors of essential oils, which have a bactericidal and soothing 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 cures yet are, of course, oncology, AIDS, and complex genetic pathologies. Nevertheless, scientists are actively working in this direction and have even achieved some success. In the field of oncological diseases, a number of methods have been developed that are at the testing stage:
- Molecular therapy is used to treat myeloid leukemia. The main remedy is the herpecin antibody, which contributes to the suppression of cancer cells.
- Laser surgery - laser treatment of the tumor.
- Photodynamic therapy - irradiation of the affected organ with a laser beam after treatment with photosensitizing substances.
- Gene therapy - replacement of defective genes.
Gene therapy opens up the possibility of treating not only cancer, but also hepatitis C, Embola virus, autism, hereditary blindness, hemophilia and many other pathologies that were still considered incurable.
CV
Summarizing the above, I would like to say that medicine has achieved tremendous results in the treatment of various diseases - both physiological and mental. A variety of evidence-based and proven types of therapies have been developed, along with which folk, including methods that are unusual from the point of view of traditional medicine, have appeared. However, not all diseases are yet successfully treated, and the main therapeutic discoveries in medicine are yet to come.
