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Monotherapy
 
 
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Monotherapy refers to a therapy which is taken by itself. It can be applied to any therapeutic approach, but it is most commonly used to describe the use of a single medication
Medication

A pharmaceutical drug, also referred to as medicine or medicament, can be loosely defined as any substance intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease....
. Normally, monotherapy is selected because a single medication is adequate to treat the medical condition. However, monotherapies may also be used because of unwanted side effects or dangerous drug interaction
Drug interaction

A drug interaction is a situation in which a substance affects the activity of a medication, i.e. the effects are increased or decreased, or they produce a new effect that neither produces on its own....
s.

Monotherapy is rarely used in treating some conditions, such as HIV
HIV

Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that can lead to AIDS , a condition in humans in which the immune system begins to fail, leading to life-threatening opportunistic infections....
 infection and many kinds of cancer.

The opposite of monotherapy is polytherapy or polypharmacy
Polypharmacy

The term polypharmacy generally refers to the use of multiple medications by a patient. The term is used when too many forms of medication are used by a patient, when more medication are prescribed than is clinically warranted, or even when all prescribed medications are clinically indicated but there are too many pills to take ....
.








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Monotherapy refers to a therapy which is taken by itself. It can be applied to any therapeutic approach, but it is most commonly used to describe the use of a single medication
Medication

A pharmaceutical drug, also referred to as medicine or medicament, can be loosely defined as any substance intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease....
. Normally, monotherapy is selected because a single medication is adequate to treat the medical condition. However, monotherapies may also be used because of unwanted side effects or dangerous drug interaction
Drug interaction

A drug interaction is a situation in which a substance affects the activity of a medication, i.e. the effects are increased or decreased, or they produce a new effect that neither produces on its own....
s.

Monotherapy is rarely used in treating some conditions, such as HIV
HIV

Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that can lead to AIDS , a condition in humans in which the immune system begins to fail, leading to life-threatening opportunistic infections....
 infection and many kinds of cancer.

The opposite of monotherapy is polytherapy or polypharmacy
Polypharmacy

The term polypharmacy generally refers to the use of multiple medications by a patient. The term is used when too many forms of medication are used by a patient, when more medication are prescribed than is clinically warranted, or even when all prescribed medications are clinically indicated but there are too many pills to take ....
.

See also

  • Polypill
    Polypill

    In medicine, the term Polypill has been coined to refer to a medication which contains a combination of active ingredients....
    , a medication which contains a combination of active ingredients