Time For You To Know The Truth About Evidence Based Homeopathy.

No Nurse CE’s are approved for this article yet. Assessing the evidence base for homeopathy. 1 This HTA report exhaustively reviews the scientific literature and its unambiguous, positive conclusions have resulted in homeopathy being included on the list of medical treatments which are reimbursed through Switzerland’s national health insurance scheme. It summarises 22 reviews, 20 of which show positive results for homeopathy.
Four of these showed strong evidence that homeopathy, as a system of medicine, is efficacious. It also finds strong supporting evidence for the homeopathic treatment of allergies and upper-respiratory tract infections. The HTA methodology used is a cornerstone of the NIHR (National Institute of Health Research) strategy for assessing real-world effectiveness, safety and cost-effectiveness of therapeutic interventions for the NHS. Randomised controlled trials By 2010, 156 RCTs comparing homeopathy (covering 75 medical conditions) had been published in good quality journals. In terms of statistically significant results, 75 of these trials were able to draw firm conclusions: 64 were positive for homeopathy and eleven were negative.2

Detractors of homeopathy continue to suggest that any beneficial effects of homeopathy are due to placebo alone. Over a period of 18 years Dr Reilly’s team at Glasgow University conducted four double blind placebo controlled trials, specifically designed to examine the evidence for this placebo hypothesis. All four trials, involving a total of 252 patients, produced similar positive results, demonstrating that homeopathy has an effect greater than placebo and that these results are reproducible.3 As the trial design used is the same as that used to test conventional treatments, Reilly states that there are only two possible conclusions from these results – “either homeopathy works or the trial generates false positive results and is therefore not a useful tool for assessing any treatment – whether orthodox or homeopathic.”4 Evidence for specific conditions Systematic reviews analysing results from several RCTs that investigated the homeopathic treatment of a given medical condition have reported positive conclusions in the following areas2: allergies and upper respiratory tract infections,5 childhood diarrhoea,6 influenza,7 post-operative ileus,8 rheumatic diseases,9 seasonal allergic rhinitis10,3,11 and vertigo.12 One of the above reviews included three double-blind clinical trials of diarrhoea in a total of 242 children aged 6 months to 5 years; the data from the three trials were analysed together.7 The results of this meta-analysis showed that the duration of acute childhood diarrhoea was reduced by individualised homeopathic treatment more than by placebo treatment, and that the results were highly significant (P=0.008).

Homeopathy in practice
A service evaluation at the Bristol Homeopathic Hospital recorded the outcome of homeopathic treatment in over 6,500 consecutive patients. In this study, carried out over a six-year period, 70% of patients reported an improvement in their health.13 The best clinical results were seen in the treatment of children with eczema and asthma, and adults with inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, menopausal problems and migraine. Other conditions which improved after homeopathic treatment included arthritis, depression and chronic fatigue syndrome.
A German study involving 493 patients seen in general practice found that treatment by a homeopath gave better outcomes than conventional treatment for similar costs.14 This study was commissioned by a German health insurance company to see whether they should continue to cover homeopathic treatment. The outcomes and costs of homeopathic and conventional treatment were compared in patients being treated for chronic conditions including headache, low back pain, depression, insomnia and sinusitis in adults, and atopic dermatitis, allergic rhinitis and asthma in children. In the laboratory 75% of in vitro experiments have found that substances as dilute as homeopathic medicines have specific effects.15 For example, homeopathically-prepared thyroxine can slow down metamorphosis of tadpoles into frogs.16 These results were replicated by five separate laboratories in Austria and confirmed by the results of similar experiments carried out by an independent team in Brazil.17 The homeopathic thyroxine used was so highly diluted that you would not expect any molecules to be present.

Further information
It is frequently said that there is ‘no scientific evidence’ for homeopathy. Such a statement is incorrect for it ignores the positive research findings as outlined above. The homeopathic community welcomes more high quality research, however, to build on the existing evidence base. For more information about homeopathy research please visit the Society of Homeopaths website at www.homeopathy-soh.org/whats-new/research/default.aspx.

References
1. ‘Homeopathy in Healthcare: Effectiveness, Appropriateness, Safety, Costs’ by Gudrun Bornhöft and Peter F. Matthiessen (Editors). 2011. ISBN 978-3-642-20637-5

2. British Homeopathic Association. http://bit.ly/1LEkYNb [accessed, Apr 2012]

3. Taylor MA, Reilly D, Llewellyn-Jones RH, et al. Randomised controlled trials of homoeopathy versus placebo in perennial allergic rhinitis with overview of four trial series. Br Med J 2000; 321: 471–6

4. Reilly D. The Evidence For Homeopathy, published by Adhom. Glasgow, http://www.adhom.com/2005

5. Bornhöft G, Wolf U, Ammon K, et al. Effectiveness, safety and cost-effectiveness of homeopathy in general practice –summarized health technology assessment. Forsch Komplementärmed 2006; 13 Suppl 2: 19–29

6. Jacobs J, Jonas WB, Jimenez-Perez M, Crothers D. Homeopathy for childhood diarrhea: combined results and metaanalysis from three randomized, controlled clinical trials. Pediatr Infect Dis J 2003; 22: 229–34

7. Vickers A, Smith C. Homoeopathic Oscillococcinum for preventing and treating influenza and influenza like syndromes (Cochrane Review). In: The Cochrane Library. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 2006; CD001957

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