therap-, -therapeutic[s], -therapeutically, -therapy, -therapies, -therapist

1. Treatment in which doctors use nuclear technology and magnets to fire protons into tumors at about two thirds the speed of light.

Proton therapy's promise lies in its ability to destroy cancerous cells while sparing healthy cells half a millimeter away, reducing side effects. It also allows doctors to ramp up the radiation dose, theoretically improving cure rates.

The precise targeting is possible because the subatomic particles release the bulk of their destructive energy beneath the skin, at the tumor's depth, rather than near the surface, as X-rays do; and while standard radiation tends to cause damage to healthy tissues on the far side of tumor, protons slow and stop as they release their energy pulse, eliminating a harmful exit dose.

2. A precise form of radiation treatment for cancer and other conditions.

It is said to minimize damage to healthy tissue and surrounding organs, and such proton treatment is considered to be highly successful and it results in fewer side effects.

This word applies to a term called "malariotherapy" which was used between 1917-1950 for the treatment of syphilis.

In 1917, Julius Wagner von Jauregg (Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist) began inoculating paretics (psychosis associated with neurosyphilis) with blood from patients with benign tertian malaria caused by Plasmodium vivax (protozoan parasite that causes vivax malaria). The elevated temperature of the body caused by the malaria parasite killed the temperature sensitive "Treponema pallidum" (a microscopic bacterial organism that causes syphilis).

Institutions for malariotherapy rapidly spread throughout Europe and the technique was also adopted in several centers in the United States. In this way, thousands of syphilitics were saved from a sure and agonizing death.

The use of heated sand, or sand baths, to alleviate painful conditions.

A false treatment of some malady.

1. Treatment of emotional, behavioral, personality, and psychiatric disorders based primarily on verbal or nonverbal communication and interventions with a patient, in contrast to treatments utilizing chemical and physical measures: "Dr. Herman applied psychotherapies which involved applications of psychological knowledge to treat the psychiatric disorders of his patients."
2. The treatment of disorders of the mind or personality by psychological or psychophysiological methods: "Vernon's psychotherapy involves the treatment of psychological disorders or maladjustments by professional techniques, as with psychoanalyses, group therapies, or behavioral therapies."

The treatment of an ailment with the application of cold.

The treatment of disease with the artificial induction of fever.

Treatment of disease by inducing an artificial fever in the patient.

A former term was pyretotherapy.

1. The medical specialty concerned with the use of electromagnetic or particulate radiation in the treatment of disease.
2. The treatment of disease by means of X-rays or other forms of ionizing radiation.

A psychiatric treatment based on the concept that some patients deny the reality of the world around them.

Therapy is directed to assist such patients in recognizing and accepting the present situation.

The main technique is confrontation; the therapist consistently confronts the client with the reality of the situation.

Illness or pathology is viewed as a defense against the real world. The purpose of the confrontation is to minimize distortion.

1. The treatment of some morbid condition by exciting a reflex action, as in the household treatment of nosebleed with a piece of ice applied to the cervical spine.
2. Form of homuncular acupuncture whose focus is the foot.

Dance therapy or a method of psychological treatment in which movement and dance are used to express and deal with feelings and experiences, both positive and negative.

Radiotherapy, the treatment of disease by particle application, as of x-ray photons, nuclear disintegrations, or ultraviolet radiation.