Intervention (medicine)

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In medicine, intervention (from the Latin intervenire = to step in between, to switch on) is any active form of treatment if one wishes to distinguish it from simply waiting. This includes therapeutic and preventive measures alike. In the narrower sense, intervention means an acute, urgent intervention against a disease process. The intervention can take place, for example, as a surgical intervention ( operation ), as a psychotherapeutic or as a drug intervention ( conservative therapy ). The effectiveness ( English for effectiveness) describes the success of the intervention.

In the case of some diseases, for example, various stages are passed through, with treatment only becoming necessary or useful after a certain stage; one then speaks of a stage-dependent intervention.

In gerontology or geriatrics , the intervention serves not only to repair damage that has already occurred, but also to slow down the decline in age through prevention and prophylaxis .

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