Friday, April 17, 2009

Is Homeopathy A Placebo Part II

By Sanjib Sarkar

The best homeopathic trials shows homeopathy is more effective than a placebo by a 2 to 1 basis on trials before 1991. This study is going to examine some more recent trials.

The most recent homeopathic trials include a trial done by A Swiss-UK review of 110 trials found no convincing evidence the treatment worked any better than a placebo. However, there seems to be many problems with this type of trial.

In part II of our series, many homeopathic trials will be examined after 1991. All trials will not be included. However, the better conducted trials with evidence or no evidence will be added.

Homeopathy Trials and Information Below:

Placebo Effect Comparison With Homeopathy

A homeopathic study with 242 patients from the age 18 to 55 examined homeopathic effect on asthmatic people allergic to house dust. This trial was double blind and placebo controlled. The study showed homeopathy to be no better than a placebo. Some differences between the homeopathic group and placebo were present. However, this was not significant amount to change the trial results.

This study was an attempt to duplicate a successful trial with allergies and asthma. The authors are uncertain why the duplication did not work. This study was bigger than the initial study.

Randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial of 126 children; 116 completed the study. Individualized homeopathic treatments improved digestive problems in children with acute childhood diarrhea. Results are consistent with findings of a previous study.

Randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial of 519 people; 400 completed the study. Homeopathic remedies, including arnica, are not effective for muscle soreness following long-distance running.

Six controlled clinical studies of meta analysis were done that indicate homeopathic remedies appear to be more effective than a placebo on rheumatic syndromes. There are not enough trails to draw a definite judgment about homeopathy and the trial conclusions were mixed.

Oscillococcinum shows the most promise out of all the homeopathic remedies. Many large studies proved Oscillococcinum was more effective than a placebo in shortening the duration of the flu. Oscillococcinum had a negative outcome on flu prevention.

More research must be completed before homeopathy medicine will be accepted by the mainstream public. Some homeopathic medicines appear to offer positive results in many double blind placebo trials. Bigger trials after 1991 show a 1 to 1 ratio of positive and negative homeopathic trials.

In conclusion, more research needs to be done but some Homeopathic remedies are showing promising results in large double blinded placebo studies. Larger studies after 1991 showed approximately a 1 to 1 ratio of successful and not successful homeopathic trials.

Higher quality trials before 1991 show homeopathy working 2/3 of the time. A few of these studies have been replicated. Oscilloccoccinum was the only remedy were several researchers duplicated trials that were successful. - 14130

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