Empirical treatment is a medical treatment not derived from the scientific method, but derived from observation, survey or common use.
In the medical profession, the term is also used when treatment is started before a diagnosis is confirmed (example: antibiotics). The most common reason is that investigations are sometimes needed in order to confirm a diagnosis, which take time, and a delay in treatment can harm the patient.
Famous quotes containing the words empirical and/or treatment:
“To develop an empiricist account of science is to depict it as involving a search for truth only about the empirical world, about what is actual and observable.... It must involve throughout a resolute rejection of the demand for an explanation of the regularities in the observable course of nature, by means of truths concerning a reality beyond what is actual and observable, as a demand which plays no role in the scientific enterprise.”
—Bas Van Fraassen (b. 1941)
“I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment, but never with a view to injury and wrongdoing. Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course. Similarly, I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion. I will keep pure and holy both my life and my art.”
—Hippocrates (c. 460–c. 370 B.C.)