Management and Treatment Part 2

Question 1

What is management?

Answer 1

• includes decisions made to deal with the patient’s complaint
• describes the strategy

Question 2

What is treatment?

Answer 2

• comprises the range of interventions
• drugs, surgery, physiotherapy etc
• used to achieve management aims

Question 3

What are the aims of management?

Answer 3

• prophylaxis/prevention

- reversal

Question 4

What is prophylaxis (prevention)?

Answer 4

• need a good understanding of aetiology/pathology
• not always sufficient
  E.g. heart disease vs. Infectious disease vs cancer
• preventing the spread of infection (education)

Question 5

What is reversal?

Answer 5

• some diseases = temporary, self-limiting + reversible
• ideal = reversing the disease process
• amounting to a cure - but not largely feasible

Question 6

What is arrest progress?

Answer 6

• slow down, stopping/ stabalising the condition
• preventing deterioration + minimising exacerbations/relapses
  e.g. stopping smoking, avoiding further lung damage + arrest of COPD
  COPD = lung disease linked to smoking

Question 7

What is symptomatic relief?

Answer 7

• common practice in pharmacy - providing OTC medicines for minor self-limiting conditions
• relief of symptoms

Question 8

What is palliation (palliative care)?

Answer 8

• no prospect of influencing the disease process
• treating the symptoms are all that can be done - as the arise
  E.g. cancer

Question 9

What are the durations of treatment?

Answer 9

• acute - managing a short term condition e.g. insomnia
• maintenance - continued long term e.g. diabetes
• prophylactic - prevent further illness e.g. heart attack

Question 10

What are modes of treatment?

Answer 10

• can include social + economic help e.g. nurses, doctors, pharmacists, social workers
• surgery, medicnes, physiotherapy
• ways of treating people

Question 11

What is monitoring?

Answer 11

• importamce of checking progress of disease
• benefits of treatment
• side-effects of treatment

Question 12

What is case history?

Answer 12

• systematic account of a progress of a patient’s disease
• including info + reasoning behind diagnosis + management decisions
• provides a central database for all concerned with the care of the patient
• pharmacist involved in taking a drug history + making a record of it
• following a process

Question 13

What are included in case histories?

Answer 13

• patient details e.g age, sex, race, occupation, recent travel
• past medical history
• medication history
• allergies e.g. nature & severity
• family history e.g type 2 diabetes
• social history e.g domestic, financial & lifestyle
• history of presenting complaint - any help saught?, actual problem?, what led them to complain?
• examination
• investigations
• diagnosis
• management plan

Question 14

What is included in an examination (review of systems)?

Answer 14

• general observations (apperance + condition)
• direct questioning about symptoms
• observation + examination for physical signs
• palpations (feeeling)
• auscultation (listening with a stethoscope)
• percussion (tapping a area + listening to a sound)