What is combined therapy?

Combined therapy is a common practice in many medical disciplines. It is generally defined as the use of more than one drug to treat the same disease. Sometimes this term is also used to describe a combination of several therapies, specific cancer therapies such as surgery and chemotherapy, to fight cancer.

Most doctors feel that the smallest amounts of drugs should be used, and with the exception of several aggressive diseases such as HIV, doctors may prefer initial patients with one drug. However, even if the dosage is adjusted, the only drug does not always have to achieve the desired results and many drugs have maximum doses that can be achieved without creating the necessary effects. Instead of adding more effective treatment that is not yet controlled.

There are many common examples where combined therapy is used. For example, personsAnd with bipolar disorder, it can rarely achieve complete treatment of a single drug. Doctors often combine mood stabilizers (lithium, carbamazepine, divalprox sodium and lamotrigine) with atypical antipsychotic drugs such as Geodon®, Seroquel® or Abilify®. Patients sometimes need two first -grade mood stabilizers to adequately manage mood swings, or may have trouble sleeping or unresolved anxiety that is solved by benzodiazepine. Often it is quite possible for people with this condition to use three or more medicines.

Another example of combined therapy can be found in the treatment of asthma. Some people use steroid -based inhaler, but also retain their albuterol or short gaming for asthma attacks. In addition, the patient could be prescribed allergic drugs or be deployed on an oral steroid to help reduce the inflammation that can cause the disease.

There are some disadvantages of using combined therapy. Some medicines used in KOmbination creates a greater risk of side effects than separately. Drugs such as lithium used with carbamazepine increase the risks for the conclusion of Stevens-Johnson's contractual syndrome, a very serious skin disease. Although the condition can improve in people in combined therapy, excessive side effects of several drugs may feel miserable.

with certain conditions is not really a choice, but combining therapy, because the only medicine is not sufficiently effective. Although it can improve health, some people will deal with double effects. On the other hand, improved health can also translate into a feeling better and many people tolerate the use of several drugs without significant increase in side effects.

Combined therapy certainly risk the risk of potentially dangerous drug interactions. That is why doctors should always ask what patients are taking, including any medicines or herbal products. When a patient cannot or not register this information, a physician may be unconsciousy prescribe something that should not be taken in combination with current medicines. Doctors must know what they are doing when they start to combine drugs, and significant attention must be paid to the question of a combination of newer drugs that may have unknown interactions with those they currently accept. It is therefore a very nuanced therapy in many of its applications, especially because more drugs are combined together.