Abstract

Homeopathic medicine remains widely used in Britain and around the world. The evidence on which homeopaths base decisions about which homeopathic medicines to prescribe comes largely from homeopathic pathogenetic trials ( HPTs).Such trials aim to produce pathogenetic effects in healthy participants by administering repeated doses of a homeopathic medicine. A previous systematic review of the quality of all such trials performed between 1945 and 1995 found that they were generally of poor quality.
This review looked at all HPTs’ performed up to 2009 and found that a small percentage of the total (3%) of such trials were of high quality. 15 met rigorous inclusion criteria and had methods which were likely to keep bias to a minimum. Trials used the number and pattern of symptoms occurring in participants as outcomes measures; these were recorded by participants in structured and unstructured diaries and questionnaires.
An analysis of the outcomes of such trials failed to find evidence that Homeopathic medicines produce pathogenetic effects in healthy adults any different to those which occur in participants taking identical placebo medicines.
The trials which met the inclusion criteria were generally of high methodological quality. However, none of them used procedures to screen or select participants who were likely to be sensitive to the particular medicine used in the trial. It is recommended that future trials adopt such a screening process.