Medicines and prescriptions
What Is Adjunctive Therapy? Add-On Treatment Explained
Adjunctive therapy · say it: uh-JUNK-tiv THAIR-uh-peeAlso written: add-on therapy, adjunct therapy, combination therapy
Short answer
Adjunctive therapy is a medicine or treatment added to another main treatment to help it work better.
What it means
Adjunctive therapy, or add-on therapy, means a treatment given together with a main treatment, to improve the result. For example, a second seizure medicine may be added when one is not enough, or an extra medicine may be added to an antidepressant.
Labels say a medicine is approved 'as adjunctive therapy' when it was tested as an add-on to other treatments. This tells your doctor that the evidence supports using it together with another medicine, not necessarily on its own. Because two or more medicines are involved, interaction and side effect warnings from both labels matter.
Adjunctive therapy is the opposite of monotherapy (one medicine alone). In cancer care, 'adjuvant therapy' is a related but more specific term for treatment given after the main treatment, such as surgery, to lower the chance of the cancer coming back.
Where you may see it
- The 'Indications' section of medicine labels
- Clinical study descriptions
- Clinic letters describing treatment changes
📄 How it looks on a report
Indicated as adjunctive therapy to antidepressants for the treatment of major depressive disorder.
🙅 What it does not mean
- It does not mean the main treatment has failed; it may simply need support.
- It does not mean you should stop your main medicine.
- An add-on medicine still has its own side effects and interactions.
🎯 Check yourself
Which of these is the right meaning of “Adjunctive therapy”?
🗒️ Questions to ask your doctor
🧾 Reports where you will see “Adjunctive therapy”
Paste or upload the report and every line of it is explained, with personal details removed first.
💊 Medicines whose labels mention “Adjunctive therapy”
Plain-English explanations of each medicine, from its official FDA label.
- Divalproex Sodium
An anti-epileptic (anti-seizure) drug of the valproate type. The label also uses it to treat manic episodes of bipolar disorder and to prevent migraine headaches.
- Lamotrigine
An anti-epileptic (seizure) medicine and mood stabilizer. The label describes it as an anti-epileptic drug of the phenyltriazine class that is chemically unrelated to other anti-epileptic drugs.
- Levetiracetam
An antiepileptic medicine, meaning a medicine used to treat seizures
🔗 Read more from trusted sources
- “Adjunctive therapy” on MedlinePlus ↗
US National Library of Medicine
- NCI Dictionary definition ↗
US National Cancer Institute: “adjunctive therapy”
Seeing this word on your own report? Get every line of it explained, free.
Explain my report🧩 Related words
🔎 Look up another word
More words: medicines and prescriptions
General information about a medical word, not advice about your own results. Ask the clinician who ordered the test what it means for you.