KeywordsNaturopathy · Complementary medicine · Evidence-based medicine, EBM · Clinical phytotherapy · University research · Chronic diseases · Herbal medicine
Summary
Results of University Research in Naturopathy: Clinical PhytotherapyThe range of university research in naturopathy/complementary medicine is shown by examples of clinical phytotherapy in patients with chronic diseases. Methods of evidence-based medicine (EBM) are turned into practice to analyze the efficacy and safety of herbal preparations as well as a rationale for the combination of extracts or for confounders in trials with herbal drugs: Due to the re-analysis of raw data according to the intention-to-treat principle, two metaanalyses showed a significant and clinically relevant reduction on the one hand of gastrointestinal symptoms in 273 patients suffering from functional dyspepsia, treated with the combination preparation STW5, and on the other hand of disease-specific mortality in 602 patients suffering from alcohol-toxic liver cirrhosis and being treated with the mono-preparation silymarin -both in comparison with placebo. Two randomized controlled trials (RCT) -one using a topical arnica gel, the other tablets of a combination of four extracts -made clear that in the former no significant inferiority could be found regarding pain reduction and hand function when compared with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in 204 patients suffering from polyarthrosis of the finger joints. In the latter, depressive and anxious symptoms were significantly reduced in 182 patients with somatoform disorders when treated with the combination of 4 extracts (Ze 185) compared to 3 extracts or to placebo. An open trial with 1,541 outpatients suffering from unipolar mild-to-moderate depressive episodes yielded, as comparable to findings with synthetic antidepressants, a negative association with disease duration, severity as well as duration of symptoms. According to the clinical question, different methodological approaches in EBM are useful to analyze herbal extracts with respect to the above-mentioned factors.
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