Medicine
CITE
We have made every effort to follow citation style rules, but there may be some minor differences. If in doubt, please refer to the appropriate citation style manual.
Medicines and treatments. (2024). In Q-files Encyclopedia, Science, Medicine. Retrieved from
https://www.q-files.com/science/medicine/medicines-and-treatments
"Medicines and treatments." Science, Medicine, Q-files Encyclopedia, 10 Jan. 2024.
https://www.q-files.com/science/medicine/medicines-and-treatments.
Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.
Medicines and treatments 2024. Science, Medicine. Retrieved 19 March 2024, from
https://www.q-files.com/science/medicine/medicines-and-treatments
Science, Medicine, s.v. "Medicines and treatments," accessed March 19, 2024.
https://www.q-files.com/science/medicine/medicines-and-treatments
Medicines and treatments
The modern healthcare system offers a wide range of medicines and other treatments to cure, manage, prevent and diagnose diseases, injuries and disorders. Doctors (usually called physicians in the USA), nurses, technicians and therapists who work in the system have to be specially trained and usually licensed (legally allowed to work in the profession). The treatments they offer are based on what works best to cure disease and improve a person's quality of life. Treatments include pharmaceutical medicines, surgery, implants, tooth “fillings”, eye spectacles and therapies to help with physical and mental issues.
Diagnosis
Before any treatment can be offered, a doctor or other healthcare worker must diagnose what is causing a patient’s symptoms. First a doctor will find out about a patient’s “history”, including full details of symptoms, facts about their own and their family’s health, and relevant details such as recent travel to foreign countries. A doctor will also physically examine the patient, which may include checking for signs of disease, taking their temperature and checking their pulse (heart rate).
A doctor may also arrange for further tests, such as blood tests, urine, X-rays, ultrasound—for viewing inside the body using sound waves—or electrocardiograms, which monitor the heart’s activity. Using their knowledge of medicine, and perhaps after discussion with other doctors, a doctor will then give a diagnosis and suggest a course of treatment.
Pharmaceutical medicines
A pharmaceutical medicine (also called a pharmaceutical drug) is developed to treat, cure or prevent disease. Governments regulate the testing and sale of pharmaceutical medicines. Many are available only “on prescription”—on the written advice of a doctor. Some—such as simple painkillers—are available “over the counter” in a shop, because they are considered safe to take without a doctor’s care, and also come with written instructions on how to take them safely. Medicines can be taken in many different ways. They can be taken by mouth (orally), in the form of tablets, capsules or fluids; into the blood through a vein (intravenously); or by another means, such as inhalation (breathing in) or rubbing into the skin (topically).
How medicines work
Medicines usually work by binding to larger molecules in the body—such as proteins and nucleic acids, which are the building blocks of all living things, whether of bacteria or human cells—and changing their activity or function. For example, antimicrobial medicines are designed to kill micro-organisms, such as certain bacteria (antibiotics), viruses (antivirals), fungi (antifungals) and parasites (antiparasitics). They usually work by killing the micro-organism or stopping it from growing. Painkillers (also called analgesics), such as aspirin and ibuprofen, work by entering cells and stopping them from making prostaglandin, which is a molecule that sends information about pain to the brain.
Biological treatments
Some medicines and treatments come from living organisms and so may be called biological treatments. Some are extracted (taken) from humans, animals or micro-organisms. These products include blood, organ and tissue transplants, stem cells from bone marrow (used to treat leukaemia, see below) and antibodies (created by the body’s immune system to fight disease).
Some biological medicines (also called biopharmaceuticals) are grown or engineered. These products include: insulin, to treat diabetes; growth hormones, to help with reduced growth; many vaccines, for which virus or bacteria cells are grown; gene therapy, which delivers healthy DNA to a patient’s cells to treat disease. Biological medicines usually have to be injected into a vein or muscle, or under the skin.
Surgery
Surgery involves cutting into a person’s tissues, muscle or bone. It is often carried out in an operating theatre by a surgeon and their team. Depending on the type of surgery, a patient may be given a local anaesthetic, which numbs a particular area, or a general anaesthetic, which causes unconsciousness. An anaesthetist (called an anesthesiologist in the USA) is a doctor who specializes in giving anaesthetics. The operating theatre itself, the surgical instruments, such as scalpel, forceps and clamps, and the surgical team’s clothes are all sterilized to kill micro-organisms such as bacteria and viruses.
Open surgery is when the surgeon makes a cut (incision) in the patient’s skin to see and operate on the internal organs directly. After the operation, the surgeon uses stitches or clips to close the cut. Another type of surgery is known as keyhole surgery. The surgeon makes only a tiny cut and uses an endoscope, a long tube with a light at the end of it, to see inside. Special surgical instruments are passed down the endoscope to allow the surgery to be done. When keyhole surgery is used in the abdomen (tummy) it is called laparoscopic surgery.
Surgery may be done for a number of reasons. It might be for removing diseased tissue, for example in cancer, or for repairing damage after an accident, for example torn ligaments after a sporting injury. Surgery is used to transplant new organs, such as kidneys, and also to implant medical devices such as heart pacemakers. Reconstructive surgery improves the appearance of an abnormal or damaged body part. When surgery is used to change the appearance of a normal healthy part of the body it is called cosmetic surgery.
Usually doctors can say when a surgical operation needs to be carried out and the patient can plan to come into hospital at a certain time. This is called elective surgery. An example would be removal of the gall bladder if a person has gallstones. But sometimes, such as after a traffic accident or if they have a swollen appendix which is about to burst, a patient needs immediate surgery to save their life or keep their body working properly. This is called emergency surgery.
Medical devices
Medical devices are manmade instruments that are used to diagnose, treat or prevent disease. Unlike medications, they do not work by having a chemical effect on the body: they work by physical means. Commonly used devices include: blood pressure machines, for measuring blood pressure; thermometers, for checking temperature; stethoscopes, for listening to the body’s internal sounds; hypodermic needles, for injecting or sampling fluids. Other medical devices are designed to be implanted in, or attached to, the body: for example, replacement joints, artificial hearts, prosthetic (artificial) limbs and pacemakers (electrical devices that keep the heart beating regularly).
Cancer treatments
Common cancer treatments include surgery to remove cancerous cells, and radiotherapy, chemotherapy, targeted therapy and hormonal therapy, which are methods of controlling or destroying cancerous cells. Radiotherapy uses ionizing radiation—electromagnetic waves with enough energy to free electrons from molecules—to damage the DNA of cancerous cells, causing them to die.
Chemotherapy, targeted therapy and hormonal therapy all use anti-cancer medicines, which are usually injected into the bloodstream. Chemotherapy medicines kill cells that divide rapidly—which is what cancer cells do. Chemotherapy also kills some healthy cells that divide rapidly, such as hair follicles, which is why hair loss is a common side-effect. Some forms of cancer may be treated with targeted therapy, which can target just cancer cells rather than all rapidly-dividing cells. Hormone therapy uses hormones that can stop the growth of some cancer cells, such as those in the breast.
Stem cell treatment
Stem cells are undifferentiated cells: cells that do not yet have a specific role. They can become almost any cell that is required and, under the right conditions, repair damaged tissue in many parts of the body. Stem cells have two main sources: adult body tissues and embryos.
Adult stem cells are found in certain parts of the body, including the blood, bone marrow, the skin, the liver and skeletal muscles. They exist to replace rapidly lost cells and only differentiate into the type of cell for which they are needed.
Embryonic stem cells come from a blastocyst, a ball of cells that forms 4–5 days after a sperm fertilizes an egg and grows into a mass of around 150–200 cells. The inner cells have the potential to develop into any cell in the body—which makes them even more useful than adult stem cells. If the pregnancy is allowed to take its course, the blastocyst implants in the womb and the stem cells begin to differentiate. But if the embryonic stem cells are obtained before this happens, they become a valuable resource for treatment, helping save lives or repair wounds and tissue damage in patients after an illness or injury. Scientists see many possible uses for embryonic stem cells: for example, creating replacement blood vessels to help treat people with cardiovascular (heart and blood system) diseases.
However, using embryonic stem cells for medicinal treatments is controversial, because it destroys a human blastocyst; the fertilized egg cannot develop into a person. Nowadays, researchers are looking for ways to create or use stem cells that do not involve embryos.
Currently, adult stem cells produced by bone marrow, which can turn into different types of blood cells, are used to treat various conditions, for example, replacing blood cells that are damaged or destroyed as a result of intensive cancer treatment. This can be done by carrying out a stem cell transplant, which involves taking healthy stem cells from bone marrow of one person (ideally a close family member) and transferring them to another.
Preventative medicine
Preventative medicine is the branch of medicine that aims to prevent disease rather than treat it. Preventative healthcare workers encourage people to eat healthily, lose excess weight and exercise regularly. They also help people to stop smoking because smoking increases the risk of certain cancers, coronary heart disease and type II diabetes. They also encourage governments to cut down pollution, improve drinking water, or run programmes that warn about disease and injury. Vaccination programmes can protect people against diseases, such as measles and polio.
Regular health checks and screening (tests) for conditions, such as high blood pressure, certain cancers, such as breast cancer, and other diseases, such as HIV/AIDS are used to spot problems before symptoms appear. Genetic testing can screen for mutations in the genes that cause disorders or give a higher risk of developing particular diseases.
Dentistry
Dentistry is the branch of medicine that prevents and treats diseases and disorders of the teeth, gums, mouth and jaw. Common problems include tooth decay and gum disease. Treatments include “fillings” in decayed teeth, removal of teeth, and treatment of infections in the roots of the teeth (root canal therapy). Orthodontists are dentists who specialize in treating irregular or wrongly aligned teeth and jaws. Dentistry is important for the overall health of the body: conditions in the mouth can warn of diseases such as diabetes or cancer, while gum disease can lead to problems in pregnancy and heart disease.
Ophthalmology
Ophthalmology is the branch of medicine that deals with conditions and diseases of the eyes. Ophthalmologists (“eye doctors”) treat diseases and disorders such as glaucoma, and perform surgery on the eye such as removing cataracts. Some doctors prescribe spectacles or contact lenses, but in many countries routine eye tests are carried out by professionals called optometrists. They are trained to treat many eye conditions and diseases, and may send patients to an ophthalmologist if other treatments are needed.
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the area of healthcare that diagnoses, treats and prevents mental health conditions. These may include anxiety, phobias (extreme fears of particular objects or situations), personality disorders, depression and schizophrenia.
Depending on the issue, patients can be treated by a range of professionals. Psychiatrists are medical doctors who treat mental disorders with a combination of medications and psychotherapy (methods of talking about feelings and behaviour). Counsellors and psychotherapists are trained to talk with individuals and groups, such as families, to help with relationships and emotions. Mental health professionals can also use a range of therapies, such as hypnotherapy (see below), and play, dance or art therapies, which encourage the patient to express their feelings.
Hypnotherapy
Hypnosis is a technique for putting someone into a state of heightened concentration, where they are more suggestible. Therapists use hypnosis (also called hypnotherapy) to help patients break bad habits, such as smoking, or achieve some other positive change, like losing weight or dealing with difficult situations. They do this with the help of fixed eye contact or soothing verbal repetition that eases the patient into a trance-like state. This is called hypnotic induction. Once relaxed (but still fully awake), patients’ minds are more open to suggestion. Hypnosis can also help people cope with stress and anxiety, as well as pain, fatigue, insomnia (not being able to sleep) and mood disorders.
Physiotherapy
A physiotherapist is trained to prevent, diagnose and treat physical disabilities and problems with movement. Physiotherapists often treat people who have been injured, have lost movement after a stroke, have a disease that affects mobility, or have been born with a disability. Treatment includes exercise, training in particular skills, and equipment to help with movement.
Occupational therapy
Occupational therapy helps people with physical and mental disabilities to carry out their jobs and daily lives. For example, an occupational therapist treating a patient with Parkinson’s disease, which affects movement and mental health, might find ways to help them care for themselves and offer classes to help care for themselves and stay independent. If someone is recovering from a serious injury, an occupational therapist might work with them to find a suitable way of travelling to work and supply special equipment to make their office space useable. Occupational therapists usually work alongside nurses, physiotherapists, counsellors and speech therapists, who treat problems with speaking, such as slurring, stuttering and word memory loss.
Consultant: Kristina Routh