When a drug's action changes a resident's response in a positive way, the drug is said to provide a __________.

A drug is said to provide a therapeutic effect when its action leads to a positive change in a resident's response. This indicates that the medication is having the intended beneficial effect on the body, resulting in improvement in symptoms or health conditions. The therapeutic effect is what healthcare providers aim for when prescribing medications, as it signifies effective treatment and achievement of desired health outcomes.

In contrast, other terms like threshold effect and dose-dependent effect relate to different pharmacological concepts. The threshold effect refers to the point at which a drug begins to produce a measurable effect, while dose-dependent effect describes how the effects of a drug correlate with the dose administered. Drug action effect is a more general term that doesn’t specifically denote the positive impact intended by the medication.