A Randomized Pilot Study of Naturopathic Medicine in Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract

Background: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use is high in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), yet there are limited reports on safety and effectiveness of CAM in MS. Naturopathic medicine encompasses a broad range of CAM modalities and may improve quality of life in patients with MS.Objective: To assess quality of life in MS subjects who received interventions designed to "model" the "whole practice" of naturopathy.Design: A pilot, randomized, controlled study with a 6-month intervention period. Participants: Participants who met criteria for clinically definite MS. Interventions: The 3 intervention arms were usual care, naturopathic medicine plus usual care, and MS education plus usual care.

A Multimodal Intervention for Patients with Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis: Feasibility and Effect on Fatigue

“…These results contrast with those of a randomized controlled study in patients with relapsingremitting MS (RRMS) that compared the effects of two interventions-(1) naturopathic medicine plus usual care and (2) MS education plus usual care-to a usual-care control group and showed that changes in perceived fatigue were similar among the three groups with none of the groups having significant decreases in fatigue. 30 Differences in FIG. 3.…”

Estimated Effects of Whole-system Naturopathic Medicine in Select Chronic Disease Conditions: A Systematic Review

“…Results from hand searching added two additional studies: a more recently published randomized controlled trial (RCT) & companion cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA). In total, 15 studies of whole practice naturopathic medicine were included [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]. Figure 1 shows the literature flowchart.…”

“…Two studies were prospective observational cohort studies, of which one was comparative to an electronically created usual care control group [24], and one made comparisons to other forms of CAM [34]. Six of the studies were randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with usual care comparators [23,[27][28][29][30]32], although one made comparisons to other forms of CAM as well [30].…”

“…All studies were in chronic disease conditions; six evaluated outcomes in diabetes or cardiovascular disease [23][24][25]28,33,37], five in musculoskeletal or pain conditions [26,[30][31][32]34], and four studies were in other conditions [27,29,35,36]. Summaries of the included studies are in …”

“…The 2008 RCT by Shinto et al investigated outcomes in multiple sclerosis [29]. Three intervention arms were defined: usual care, naturopathic medicine plus usual care, and MS education plus usual care.…”