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AAT Bioquest

What is difference between therapeutic and prophylactic group in research?

Posted May 18, 2020


Answer

A prophylactic is a medication or a treatment designed and used to prevent a disease from occurring. Therefore, if the drug is administered before disease onset, it is considered prophylactic, otherwise it is considered therapeutic. Therapeutic group are the subjects on treatment of existing disease, while prophylatic group are subjects receiving preventive measures.

Additional resources

Wandt, H., Schaefer-Eckart, K., Wendelin, K., Pilz, B., Wilhelm, M., Thalheimer, M., … Ehninger, G. (2012). Therapeutic platelet transfusion versus routine prophylactic transfusion in patients with haematological malignancies: an open-label, multicentre, randomised study. The Lancet, 380(9850), 1309–1316. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(12)60689-8