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)
“[17th-century] Puritans were the first modern parents. Like many of us, they looked on their treatment of children as a test of their own self-control. Their goal was not to simply to ensure the child’s duty to the family, but to help him or her make personal, individual commitments. They were the first authors to state that children must obey God rather than parents, in case of a clear conflict.”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)