Therapy is the part of medicine that deals with the treatment of diseases. Now, that is the most general definition of the concept and by the way there are different types of therapies, as there are so many conditions or diseases. In strict reality, following the comments of numerous historical experts in the "art of healing", there would be as many therapies as there are patients, within the framework of the subjective and personalized assistance of each person and their health problems. Meanwhile, in somewhat more simplified terms and with the goal of advancing and deepening the concept, it will be necessary to delve into some of the the types of therapies existing, better known and demanded by patients.
Among these, the following stand out: genetic, biological, hormonal, occupational, intensive and cognitive therapy.
Genetics responds to an experimental medical technique that consists of the insertion of genes into the cells and tissues of the patient to treat the disease that afflicts them. With greater advances in botany and veterinary medicine than in human medicine, gene therapy is beginning to emerge as a promising tool for the health sciences in the near future.
Then, and following the capricious order that we imposed on the list, there is the biological therapy or also known as immunotherapy, which what it does is use the body's immune system to fight, for example, cancer or to reduce the side effects that come from suffering from it. Likewise, in the chapter on biological therapies, the so-called targeted molecular treatments are currently located, in which a drug specifically intended to inhibit the activity of a molecule or receptor is administered. This resource has radically modified the approach to some malignant diseases, either as proprietary therapies or in association with conventional treatments.
Meanwhile, hormonal therapy consists of the administration of different medications to interfere with hormonal activity by blocking the production of hormones, which have been shown to favor the growth of a tumor and is only used after a positive result of the receptor test has been obtained. hormonal. Both breast cancer and prostate cancer are clear examples of the fantastic activity of these products, since both diseases proliferate in a more accentuated way when the hormones present higher values.
Occupational therapy, on the other hand, is the first on the list that appears and does not refer to the treatment of a physical ailment like the previous ones, since it deals more than anything with developing activities that contribute to the health and well-being of people. Individuals with disabilities are those who achieve the best results when treated with these strategies, both in children and adults and, in particular, in the elderly.
And now if one that almost all of us surely know and one of the most familiar "therapies": intensive care, which refers to the inpatient unit that exists in most clinics, sanatoriums or hospitals. In this area, medical assistance is given to the most serious patients, whose lives are in serious danger and, of course, are precisely equipped with sophisticated devices to effectively fulfill this need. Intensive care has undergone remarkable changes in recent decades that have allowed a better survival of very serious adult and pediatric patients, with astonishing levels of recovery.
And finally, yes, the most popular of all and one of the most demanded during the last years of the last century and so far this century, cognitive, which deals with treating those conditions that do not cause specific pain, but that are sometimes just as cruel and dangerous as those that do hurt, such as phobias, depression, anxiety attacks, and other psychological disorders. Basically, what this does is make the patient recognize the problem that causes these problems and replace it with other ideas or issues that allow them to forget it or make it disappear. In addition to psychoanalysis (perhaps one of the most widespread variants), cognitive-behavioral therapy, due to its more specific approach, has commented to become the preferred psychological approach strategy for most experts.
There is a brief final mention for alternative therapies, in many cases of no real and academic value, but on certain occasions of undoubted scientific content and clinical efficacy, as is the case with acupuncture, Ayurvedic medicine and other aspects that have just been added to the arsenal. therapeutic science of the West.
