Therapeutic approach: how to get there

After determining the therapeutic goals for an individual patient, the next step in good prescribing is planning a therapeutic approach to achieve these goals.

This article aims to illustrate the process of the therapeutic approach. An example of a patient with asthma is discussed, and the evidence base for the possible lifestyle interventions is reviewed.

Clinicians often treat the therapeutic approach as a two step process of identifying nonpharmacological then drug related interventions. However, the scope of therapeutic approaches is really much broader than this. It encompasses lifestyle change, education, avoidance of triggers, procedural interventions, patient self management, as well as drug treatment. The latter may actually include medication cessation.