Medical Term Definition

Treatment Failure

Treatment failure occurs when a treatment does not achieve the intended therapeutic outcome.

Treatment failure can have many possible causes. In an infection, for example, the cause may include drug resistance, an incorrect diagnosis, an inappropriate medicine or dose, inadequate drug absorption, interactions with other medicines, or insufficient exposure to the treatment.

Treatment failure does not automatically mean that a medicine is ineffective. It is important to determine why treatment failed before deciding what should be done next.

QUICK FACT

Treatment failure is an outcome, not an explanation. Finding that treatment has failed does not by itself tell you why it failed.

COMMONLY CONFUSED WITH

Drug resistance: Drug resistance is one possible cause of treatment failure, but treatment can fail for many other reasons.

SEE ALSO

Clinical & Educational Context

Discussed in Health Articles & Guides

Explore how "Treatment Failure" is covered across our evidence-based editorial guides:

2 Articles
The Hard Parts of Medicine

Polypharmacy: What Really Happens When You Take Multiple Medicines

Examples include: HIV: Combination antiretroviral therapy uses medicines with complementary actions to suppress the virus and reduce the risk of treatment failure.
Cases & Narratives

His Last Malaria: A Case of Suspected Fake Medicines

And the more medicines he tried, the harder it became to know whether he was experiencing treatment failure, an inadequate regimen, a poor-quality medicine,...