Medicine

Symptomatic Therapy

Symptomatic therapy focuses on treating the symptoms, such as cough medicine for coughing, pain-killers for pain, anti-diarrheic drug for diarrhea etc. However, even it is doctors’ duty to relieve patients’ suffering, symptomatic therapy is not always right.
For instance, cough or diarrhea, which can remove harmful products from the body, is the body’s natural reaction to an illness. If the reaction is suppressed by drugs, sometimes symptom may be prolonged or even worsened.
Cough suppressants may delay the elimination of the phlegm from lungs, are therefore may not be recommended for a productive cough (a chesty cough); on the other hand, it is very effective to calm unproductive coughs (a dry cough).
In addition, antidiarrheal drugs can inhibit intestinal mobility and may cause abdominal pain or worsen the illness. Therefore, doctors may listen to the chest with a stethoscope to hear abnormal lung sounds, or check the abdomen to diagnose intestinal condition.