Homeopathy vs Conventional Treatment

An observational study of patients receiving homeopathic treatment

M Van Wassenhoven and G Ives

Background. Observational studies have recently contributed useful information to the debate about the utility of homeopathic treatment in everyday practice.

Aim. To gather data about routine homeopathic general practice.

Setting. Eighty general medical practices in Belgium where physicians were members of the Unio Homoeopathica Belgica.

Methods. All patients and their physicians visiting the practices on a specified day completed a questionnaire.

Results. A total of 782 patients presented with diseases of all major organ systems which were of sufficient severity to interfere with daily living in 78% of cases.

Compared to previous conventional treatment, patients reported that consultations were much longer but costed less. One or more conventional drug treatments were discontinued in over half (52%) of the patients: CNS (including psychotropic) drugs (21%), drugs for respiratory conditions (16%) and antibiotics (16%). Conventional drugs were prescribed to about a quarter of patients (27%), mostly antibiotics and cardiovascular medication. The antibiotics were almost exclusively (95%) used to treat respiratory infections. Prescription costs (including conventional medicines) were onethird of the general practice average. Patients�?satisfaction with their homeopathic treatment was very high (95% fairly or very satisfied), and ratings of their previous treatment was much lower (20%). The great majority (89%) said that homeopathy had improved their physical condition; 8.5% said that it had made no difference, 2.4% said that homeopathy had worsened their condition. Physicians�?ratings of improvement were similar. Previous conventional treatment had improved 13% of patients, made no difference to 32%, and had worsened the condition of over half (55%). A similar pattern was seen for psychological symptoms.

Conclusions: Patients were very satisfied with their homeopathic treatment, both they and their physicians recorded significant improvement. Costs of homeopathic treatment were significantly lower than conventional treatment, and many previously prescribed drugs were discontinued.

Conclusions
In this study, a large group of unselected patients seeking homeopathic therapy in general medical practice reported that their treatment had been highly effective in resolving physical and psychological symptoms which, in 78% of cases, had been sufficiently severe to interfere with their lives. These findings were corroborated bytheir physicians. The patients�?satisfaction levels with their treatment were very high .

In contrast, both satisfaction with and the reported outcome of previous orthodox treatment was poor and failure of previous treatment may account both for the selection of homeopathic therapybythe patients and the large contrast between ratings of the two. Over half were able to discontinue previouslyprescribed conventional drugs. Most medications which were continued were antibiotics and cardiovascular. The antibiotics were almost exclusivelyused to treat respiratory infections.

Consultations were on average more than twice as long as for previous conventional treatment but cost the patients less. The largest cost savings were made by patients with the worst initial ratings of their physical condition. The lower level of conventional prescribing implied considerable savings to the state if homeopathic medicine were more widely adopted .

The results show that useful data can be obtained from this type of observational study and point the way for future work of a similar type.

Homeopathy (2004) 93, 3�?1.

http://www.homeopathyoz.org/downloads/BJH2004-CostSavingsWithHom-Belgium.pdf