- Allopathy
- The system of medical practice which treats disease by the use of remedies which produce effects different from those produced by the disease under treatment. MDs practice allopathic medicine. The term "allopathy" was coined in 1842 by C.F.S. Hahnemann to designate the usual practice of medicine (allopathy) as opposed to homeopathy, the system of therapy that he founded based on the concept that disease can be treated with drugs (in minute doses) thought capable of producing the same symptoms in healthy people as the disease itself.
* * *Regular medicine, the traditional form of medical practice. Cf.:homeopathy. SYN: heteropathy (2), substitutive therapy. [allo- + G. pathos, suffering]
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1) a system of medical practice that aims to combat disease by use of remedies (as drugs or surgery) producing effects different from or incompatible with those produced by the disease being treated compare HOMEOPATHY2) a system of medical practice making use of all measures that have proved of value in treatment of diseaseal·lo·path·ic .al-ə-'path-ik adjal·lo·path·i·cal·ly -i-k(ə-)lē adv* * *
n.(in homeopathic medicine) the orthodox system of medicine, in which the use of drugs is directed to producing effects in the body that will directly oppose and so alleviate the symptoms of a disease. Compare homeopathy.* * *
al·lop·a·thy (al-opґə-the) [allo- + -pathy] a term applied to that system of therapeutics in which diseases are treated by producing a condition incompatible with or antagonistic to the condition to be cured or alleviated. Called also heteropathy. Cf. homeopathy. allopathic adj
Medical dictionary. 2011.