Course (medicine)
|
WikiDoc Resources for Course (medicine) |
|
Articles |
|---|
|
Most recent articles on Course (medicine) Most cited articles on Course (medicine) |
|
Media |
|
Powerpoint slides on Course (medicine) |
|
Evidence Based Medicine |
|
Cochrane Collaboration on Course (medicine) |
|
Clinical Trials |
|
Ongoing Trials on Course (medicine) at Clinical Trials.gov Trial results on Course (medicine) Clinical Trials on Course (medicine) at Google
|
|
Guidelines / Policies / Govt |
|
US National Guidelines Clearinghouse on Course (medicine) NICE Guidance on Course (medicine)
|
|
Books |
|
News |
|
Commentary |
|
Definitions |
|
Patient Resources / Community |
|
Patient resources on Course (medicine) Discussion groups on Course (medicine) Patient Handouts on Course (medicine) Directions to Hospitals Treating Course (medicine) Risk calculators and risk factors for Course (medicine)
|
|
Healthcare Provider Resources |
|
Causes & Risk Factors for Course (medicine) |
|
Continuing Medical Education (CME) |
|
International |
|
|
|
Business |
|
Experimental / Informatics |
Please Take Over This Page and Apply to be Editor-In-Chief for this topic: There can be one or more than one Editor-In-Chief. You may also apply to be an Associate Editor-In-Chief of one of the subtopics below. Please mail us [1] to indicate your interest in serving either as an Editor-In-Chief of the entire topic or as an Associate Editor-In-Chief for a subtopic. Please be sure to attach your CV and or biographical sketch.
In medicine, a course of medication is a period of continuous treatment with a drug, sometimes with variable dosage. Treatment with some drugs should not end abruptly. Instead, their course should end with a tapering dosage.
- Antibiotics
- Taking the full course of antibiotics is important to prevent reinfection and/or development of drug-resistant bacteria.
- Steroids
- For both short-term and long-term steroid treatment, when stopping treatment, the dosage is tapered rather than abruptly ended. This permits the adrenal glands to resume the body's natural production of cortisol. Abrupt discontinuation can result in adrenal insufficiency; and/or steroid withdrawal syndrome — a rebound effect in which exaggerated symptoms return.
Another meaning in medicine is the course of a disease, a description of the speed of evolution of the disease. Diseases can have an acute, a subacute, a chronic or a recurrent course. A fulminant course is a particularly severe and rapid acute course. A patient can be at the beginning, the middle or the end of the disease's course.