Symptomatic treatment, supportive care, supportive therapy, or palliative treatment is any medical therapy of a disease that only affects its symptoms, not the underlying cause.
For conditions like cancer, arthritis, neuropathy, tendinopathy, and injury, it can be useful to distinguish treatments that are supportive/palliative and cannot alter the natural history of the disease (disease modifying treatments).
[2] Symptomatic treatments are often used to manage side effects, such as drug withdrawal syndromes.
[3] Symptomatic treatment is not always recommended, and in fact, it may be dangerous, because it may mask the presence of an underlying etiology which will then be forgotten or treated with great delay.
Examples: Finally, symptomatic treatment is not exempt from adverse effects, and may be a cause of iatrogenic consequences (i.e., ill effects caused by the treatment itself), such as allergic reactions, stomach bleeding, central nervous system effects (nausea, dizziness, etc.