Homeopathy Deserves Its Own Scientific Identity

Rutten, Lex

doi:10.1055/s-0040-1701660

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…The necessity of systematic data collection of homeopathic treatment opens up a wide new perspective on the scientific identity of homeopathy. 11 Practitioners learn to reflect more on why they do what they do, on specification of symptoms, on causes of cure etc. Most important of all, data collection and PFR will open up the discussion between colleagues about all aspects of the profession.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is Homeopathy More Effective Now Than a Hundred Years Ago?

2021

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During the past century, the amount of information about homeopathic medicines has grown dramatically. However, the recent coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has shown that homeopathic practitioners do not use more medicines than a century ago and they seem to use less symptoms to find the proper medicine. This could be explained by the fact that the more than a hundred years old repertory was flawed from the beginning and that more information in the repertory leads the practitioner astray in an increasingly complex labyrinth of data.This can be resolved by applying modern data management techniques based on systematic collection of treatment data and statistical analysis of the data. Homeopathic practitioners should collect these data avoiding bias. This requires additional training of practitioners, which should also result in a higher scientific level of homeopathic practice and increasingly effective treatment as the database grows.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is Homeopathy More Effective Now Than a Hundred Years Ago?

2021

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“…In a previous article in this journal, it was argued that improving homeopathy with Bayesian assessment of symptoms fits homeopathy's scientific identity. 5 Shortly after this publication the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic rapidly evolved into a pandemic we had not experienced since a hundred years. A COVID-19 data collection project initiated by the Liga Medicorum Homeopathica Internationalis (LMHI) and the database of the American Institute of Homeopathy (AIH) was described previously in this journal.…”

Section: Boxmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is the Doctor Who Cures Right? Or Should We Look for Black Swans? Complementary Aspects of Homeopathy's Scientific Identity

Rutten

2023

Homœopathic Links

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Popper's point of view that a hypothesis can only be proven wrong by finding one counter-instance and that confirmation is unscientific is widely acknowledged. In medicine, however, we can only optimise the probability that a therapy works. For this we have to search for counter-instances for our existing ideas. The inclusion of a medicine in a repertory symptom-rubric when the symptom is seen in a cured case is wrong. This biased idea could be replaced by the Bayesian likelihood ratio (LR).LR can be assessed by prognostic factor research (PFR) using data collection by homeopathic practitioners. In the past 25 years, several PFR projects have been performed. It appeared that practitioners correct for biased entries in the repertory by finding practical solutions. Such solutions are keynote prescribing, selecting sub-rubrics that semantically confirm the preferred medicine and lowering threshold values for symptoms that confirm the preferred medicine. There is also variation between practitioners in confirming medicine selections by repertorisation. This way the bias of the repertory results in biased data collection. Statistical analysis of biased data results in biased conclusions.Research protocols should deal with bias in data collection and statistical analysis. Practitioners and researchers involved in data collection should be thoroughly trained. Incoming data should be monitored from the start resulting in adequate feedback to observers.

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“…This approach aligns with the core principles of homeopathy, which emphasize individualized treatment based on symptom similarity. 6 In other words, LR is a statistical measure that provides insights into how much a symptom's presence influences the likelihood of a particular remedy being effective, thereby quantifying the strength of the connection between a symptom and a remedy. Utilizing this concept, various studies systematically estimated the LRs of different homeopathic medicines using Bayesian methods.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimation of the Likelihood Ratio of Different Symptoms for Six Homeopathic Medicines: Prognostic Factor Research

Mohanta,

Sardar,

Chakraborty

et al. 2024

Homeopathy

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Background Arsenicum album, Causticum, Nux vomica, Pulsatilla nigricans, Rhus toxicodendron and Sulphur are frequently prescribed homeopathic medicines; however, their symptoms, as mentioned in different homeopathic literature works, have rarely been investigated systematically. Likelihood ratio (LR), based on Bayesian statistics, may reflect a better estimation of the strengths of symptoms than the existing entries in the homeopathic literature. Methods A prospective, longitudinal, analytical patient outcome study was conducted in the outpatient departments of D. N. De Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, on 1,954 patients over 21 months. The outcomes were recorded at each follow-up using the Outcome Related to Impact on Daily Living (ORIDL) +4 to −4 scale. The average period of treatment for each participant was 3 months. The LRs of four symptoms for each of the six selected medicines were calculated. Results One hundred and two different remedies were prescribed. The prevalence, LR + , and LR − , with respective 95% confidence intervals, of different symptoms were reported. The study found that the following symptoms had particularly high LR+ scores: “intense sympathy for the suffering of others” (Causticum, LR+ = 12.0); “dyspepsia from business anxiety” (Nux vomica, LR+ = 27.4); “burning pain relieved by heat” (Arsenicum album, LR+ = 29.6); “envy” (Pulsatilla nigricans, LR+ = 13.2); “desire for milk” (Rhus toxicodendron, LR+ = 7.5); “very selfish, no regard for others” (Sulphur, LR+ = 20.6). The findings corroborated well with the presentation of the symptoms in different homeopathic materia medica and repertories. ORIDL scores of +2 or greater were identified most prominently for Pulsatilla nigricans (n = 138) and Sulphur (n = 119). Conclusion There was adequate evidence to attribute all the assessed symptoms to the medicines investigated. Further studies with a larger population are warranted to tackle the possible confirmation bias.

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Homeopathy Deserves Its Own Scientific Identity

Cited by 4 publications

References 27 publications

Is Homeopathy More Effective Now Than a Hundred Years Ago?

Is Homeopathy More Effective Now Than a Hundred Years Ago?

Is the Doctor Who Cures Right? Or Should We Look for Black Swans? Complementary Aspects of Homeopathy's Scientific Identity

Estimation of the Likelihood Ratio of Different Symptoms for Six Homeopathic Medicines: Prognostic Factor Research

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