Definition: the opinion of “treatment in accordance with individual” refers
to that the principle of choosing medicine to treat some disease should be
determined by patient’s age, gender, body constitution, living habits and other
individual features.
Application: in the process of treating disease, doctors should consider the
whole condition of patients instead of concentrating on the disease isolate.
Firstly, age: physiological function and pathological features are different
from every age. For example, old people have Qi and blood failure and declined
physical function. These patients usually have asthenia symptoms or asthenia Qi
and sthenia pathogenic factors. When choosing treatment, nourishing method can
be taken to treat asthenia symptoms, while dealing with sthenia pathogenic
factors should choose prescription carefully in order to damage Qi. Generally,
normal medicine dosage should be taken in the case of considering age
factor.
Secondly, sex: both male and female have their distinctive physical features.
Medicine should be chosen carefully, especially for female patients who are in
menstrual period, pregnant period or postpartum period and other periods. For
example, when patients are pregnant, toxic medicine and medicines that have
function of drasticpurgation, breaking blood, lubricating and can cause injury
to fetus should be limited or forbidden.
Thirdly, body constitution: due to different congenital factors and acquired
nursing method, body constitution can have differences of not only strong and
weak, but also cold and heat. And sometimes, some people may also get some
Chronic Diseases. Therefore, even patients are suffering from the same disease,
they can take different medicines.
Some other factors, like career, working condition, can be also related with
some certain diseases, so when doctors are making a diagnosis, they should also
consider all these factors.