Treatment (Tx)
What is a treatment (Tx)?
A treatment (Tx) is a medical intervention intended to remediate a health problem, such as a disease or disorder. Also referred to as a therapy, a treatment is usually ordered by a physician as part of a care plan following a diagnosis.
Every treatment has indications and contraindications--reasons to administer or reject the treatment based on its likelihood to help or harm a patient. Even effective treatments may carry adverse side effects or risks, which the physician and patient must consider before establishing a care plan.
Why is treatment abbreviated as Tx?
In healthcare, many common terms are abbreviated using the first letter of the word followed by a lowercase X. The first and most common of these abbreviations is Rx, which refers to prescriptions using the shortened Latin recipere, or recipe.
The popular usage of Rx has led to a number of other medical abbreviations in the same format. In the case of Tx and other abbreviations, the lowercase X is simply a stand-in for the missing letters in the word:
- Treatment/therapy (Tx)
- Diagnosis (Dx)
- Family (Fx)
- Medical history (Hx)
- Symptoms (Sx)