The terms ‘therapy’ and ‘treatment’ mean the same in medical science. Therapy is the procedure undertaken to correct a health problem after a diagnosis of the patient’s condition has been carried out. For psychologists, however, the term therapy is synonymous with ‘psychotherapy’. The major types of therapy include preventive therapy, abortive therapy and supportive therapy. Preventive therapy is designed to stop the occurrence of a medical condition in the first place. An instance of preventive therapy is vaccination that prevents infectious diseases from occurring. However, once a medical condition has set in, abortive therapy is designed to stop the condition from progressing any further. For instance, medicines that are taken at the signs of a migraine headache are part of abortive therapy. Supportive therapy, on the other hand, is aimed at increasing the patient’s comfort level, and does not prevent or treat the medical condition. At the same time, some types of treatment do not lead to the desired therapeutic effect, and instead have undesirable ‘side effects’ on the patient’s body. In India, meditation therapy and occupational therapy are two forms of therapy that have acquired considerable popularity in recent years. Hide this