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EDITORIAL
1
EVIDENCE OF HOMEOPATHY
EDITORIAL
SPECTRUM OF HOMEOPATHY
Dear readers,
The first issue of SPECTRUM OF HOMEOPATHY came out
10 years ago. Thanks to your ongoing and generous support,
our journal has become an important source of information
and encouragement for homeopathic practice. At the same
time, homeopathy has been subject to increasing criticism. It
is now common in public discourse to deny that it has any
supporting evidence, and it is vilified and ridiculed. Critics refer
to dubious and dishonest studies such as those described in the
contribution from the Australian homeopath Jo Greenland. So
we would like in our anniversary issue to give you an overview
of the state of research and evidence.
It is a widespread misunderstanding that evidence-based medicine
(EBM) rests solely on scientific studies. As can be seen from our
cover graphic, evidence-based treatment decisions are about
integrating the experience, expectations and preferences of
patients, the clinical expertise of the doctors conducting the
treatment and the knowledge from studies. A high level of support
over many years indicates the preference many people have for
homeopathy. SPECTRUM has demonstrated the clinical expertise
of homeopathy with numerous case studies over the years.
Four especially impressive cases from Rajan Sankaran, Ulrike
Schuller-Schreib, Franz Swoboda, and Dinesh Chauhan again
underscore the evidence that – even with severe pathology such
as autoimmune hepatitis, cardiomyopathy, multiple sclerosis or
systemic lupus erythematosus – homeopathy can be effective.
Heiner Frei in his work on the treatment of ADHD covers all areas
of EBM. Here the preference of the patients and their parents
– resulting from fear of the side effects of Ritalin – combine
with the extensive experience of an experienced paediatrician
together with the results of a critically acclaimed randomised
double-blind study to generate a clear evidence-based preference
for homeopathy. The ENT doctor Michael Schreiner points out
that even the guidelines of the appropriate professional bodies
advise against the use of conventional antibiotics for acute cases
of tonsillitis, otitis media or sinusitis, thereby permitting the use
of homeopathic globuli.
Together with ADHD and otitis media in children, Katharina
Gaertner in her contribution looks at controlled studies on
individualised homeopathic treatment for other childhood
illnesses where there is sufficient evidence for the safe and
effective use of homeopathy in health care. She maintains
that anyone still talking about a placebo effect in view of the
available evidence cannot or will not read the data properly. Yet
the Achilles heel of homeopathy is still the high potencies, which
simply cannot work from the viewpoint of natural science. To
refute this so-called plausibility bias, we can test the effect of
high potencies using sophisticated experimental models from
physics, chemistry, and biology. As an example of this intensive
homeopathic basic research, Annekathrin Ücker takes an in-
depth look at the methodology and results of experiments on
plants.
In clinical research, the trend in homeopathy, as in other areas
of medicine, is towards study designs that investigate the
effectiveness of treatment interventions in conditions that are
as realistic as possible. Since randomised double-blind studies
on the efficacy of a treatment deliver relatively few insights
into its clinical application, the favoured approach nowadays
is to use comparative research of effectiveness with the aim of
enabling specific clinical decisions for both patients and health
policy. For more information on this, please see the report on
the Congress of the Homeopathy Research Institute in London,
where these developments were comprehensively discussed.
If you find yourself exposed to an often unfamiliar scientific
language in our articles on evidence and research, our thoughtful
final article puts this in perspective. For Jörg Wichmann,
homeopathy as a holistic and immaterial treatment method
cannot be judged according to the criteria of scientific-materialist
medicine. Yet even if the spirit-like effect of a remedy cannot be
measured, precise observation and conscientious documentation
remain the basis of homeopathic practice and research, and will
also remain key criteria for our authors in the future.
Christa Gebhardt & Dr Jürgen Hansel
Chief editors