Prin
August 29th, 2005, 12:00 AM
Anybody read this article? Any comments?
Homeopathy a placebo
study
Canadian Press
Friday, August 26, 2005
TORONTO (CP) -- Homeopathic remedies may help people feel better, but their impact appears to be no greater than a placebo effect, a comparison of more than 200 studies of the alternative medicine and conventional treatments concludes.
Homeopathy, which aims to stimulate a patient's own healing processes with minute dilutions of specific remedies, is based on the theory of treating "like with like." The patient describes symptoms in detail and the practitioner prescribes tiny, non-toxic doses of a selected substance that, at higher doses, would produce those symptoms in a healthy person.
A group of international researchers wanted to determine whether homeopathic medicine actually works beyond the power of suggestion.
"We do know that people do get better with homeopathy," said co-investigator Dr. Matthias Egger, head of social and preventive medicine at the University of Bern in Switzerland. "I have friends who tell me they went to see a homeopath and got better.
"But the question is how does it work?"
After searching the medical literature, the researchers distilled 110 studies that compared homeopathic remedies to placebo, or dummy pills, and an equal number that compared conventional medicine treatments to placebo.
The team, whose paper appears Friday in the Lancet, matched the studies to ensure patient profiles were similar and the ailment being treated was the same. Ailments included respiratory tract infections, asthma and gastrointestinal problems.
Because small studies tend to produce effects that appear significant but may actually be misleading, the authors limited their analysis to patient trials for both homeopathic and conventional therapies that were well-designed and involved large numbers of patients.
"What we saw was when you looked at these good, large studies, you did no longer see an effect for homeopathy, whereas you still saw an effect for conventional medicine," Egger said Thursday from Bern.
"Conventional medicine interventions did better than placebo, whereas the homeopathy interventions basically did the same as placebo."
Egger stressed that the researchers aren't disputing patients' reports that taking homeopathic remedies makes them feel better.
"It just means that the reason why they feel better is probably not because of that little white pill," he said. "It's more likely to be due to the fact that they see someone, spend quite a bit of time with someone who takes a very detailed history of his or her symptoms and gives a lot of attention to this patient."
But Toronto naturopath Ruth Anne Baron disputed the researchers conclusions.
"They're saying that by looking at these 110 studies and subjecting them to this kind of statistical analysis that it conclusively proves that homeopathic treatment is no better than placebo," said Baron, president of the Ontario Association of Naturopathic Doctors.
"Now, all of us who use homeopathy clinically would definitely argue with that, and patients who use homeopathy would argue with that, as well.
"The homeopathic effect, I have felt it myself, I have seen it in my patients, but it's very elusive, it's so difficult to quantify it," she said. I personally believe we don't have a fine enough measurement tool yet."
Baron said the Lancet analysis involved studies using several different homeopathic approaches, not all of them considered valid by many practitioners. Furthermore, the alternative medicine system can't be studied using the same methods as conventional medicine, she added.
WHAT HOMEOPATHY'S ALL ABOUT
Here are some facts about homeopathy:
What it is
--A method of healing based on the idea that substances causing specific symptoms in a healthy person can cure these symptoms in someone who is sick.
--Derived from the Greek "homeo," meaning same, and "pathos," meaning suffering.
--The remedies, among them pills and liquids, are prepared from plant, mineral and animal extracts that are highly diluted in a specific way that makes them non-toxic.
Where it came from
--Homeopathy was developed by German physician Samuel Hahnemann, who first published his treatise on treating illness in 1810. The sixth edition of Organon of Rational Therapeutics, published in 1921, is still used today as homeopathy's basic text.
The controversy
--In the latest scientific questioning of homeopathy, an analysis of more than 200 international trials concludes the alternative medicine system may make patients feel better, but the impact is no greater than that of the placebo effect -- a beneficial result that occurs because of a patient's expectation that the therapy will help.
--Practitioners and proponents of homeopathy dispute that the "homeopathic effect" is merely psychological.
Ran with fact box "What homeopathy's all about" which has been appended to the story.
© Alberni Valley Times 2005
Homeopathy a placebo
study
Canadian Press
Friday, August 26, 2005
TORONTO (CP) -- Homeopathic remedies may help people feel better, but their impact appears to be no greater than a placebo effect, a comparison of more than 200 studies of the alternative medicine and conventional treatments concludes.
Homeopathy, which aims to stimulate a patient's own healing processes with minute dilutions of specific remedies, is based on the theory of treating "like with like." The patient describes symptoms in detail and the practitioner prescribes tiny, non-toxic doses of a selected substance that, at higher doses, would produce those symptoms in a healthy person.
A group of international researchers wanted to determine whether homeopathic medicine actually works beyond the power of suggestion.
"We do know that people do get better with homeopathy," said co-investigator Dr. Matthias Egger, head of social and preventive medicine at the University of Bern in Switzerland. "I have friends who tell me they went to see a homeopath and got better.
"But the question is how does it work?"
After searching the medical literature, the researchers distilled 110 studies that compared homeopathic remedies to placebo, or dummy pills, and an equal number that compared conventional medicine treatments to placebo.
The team, whose paper appears Friday in the Lancet, matched the studies to ensure patient profiles were similar and the ailment being treated was the same. Ailments included respiratory tract infections, asthma and gastrointestinal problems.
Because small studies tend to produce effects that appear significant but may actually be misleading, the authors limited their analysis to patient trials for both homeopathic and conventional therapies that were well-designed and involved large numbers of patients.
"What we saw was when you looked at these good, large studies, you did no longer see an effect for homeopathy, whereas you still saw an effect for conventional medicine," Egger said Thursday from Bern.
"Conventional medicine interventions did better than placebo, whereas the homeopathy interventions basically did the same as placebo."
Egger stressed that the researchers aren't disputing patients' reports that taking homeopathic remedies makes them feel better.
"It just means that the reason why they feel better is probably not because of that little white pill," he said. "It's more likely to be due to the fact that they see someone, spend quite a bit of time with someone who takes a very detailed history of his or her symptoms and gives a lot of attention to this patient."
But Toronto naturopath Ruth Anne Baron disputed the researchers conclusions.
"They're saying that by looking at these 110 studies and subjecting them to this kind of statistical analysis that it conclusively proves that homeopathic treatment is no better than placebo," said Baron, president of the Ontario Association of Naturopathic Doctors.
"Now, all of us who use homeopathy clinically would definitely argue with that, and patients who use homeopathy would argue with that, as well.
"The homeopathic effect, I have felt it myself, I have seen it in my patients, but it's very elusive, it's so difficult to quantify it," she said. I personally believe we don't have a fine enough measurement tool yet."
Baron said the Lancet analysis involved studies using several different homeopathic approaches, not all of them considered valid by many practitioners. Furthermore, the alternative medicine system can't be studied using the same methods as conventional medicine, she added.
WHAT HOMEOPATHY'S ALL ABOUT
Here are some facts about homeopathy:
What it is
--A method of healing based on the idea that substances causing specific symptoms in a healthy person can cure these symptoms in someone who is sick.
--Derived from the Greek "homeo," meaning same, and "pathos," meaning suffering.
--The remedies, among them pills and liquids, are prepared from plant, mineral and animal extracts that are highly diluted in a specific way that makes them non-toxic.
Where it came from
--Homeopathy was developed by German physician Samuel Hahnemann, who first published his treatise on treating illness in 1810. The sixth edition of Organon of Rational Therapeutics, published in 1921, is still used today as homeopathy's basic text.
The controversy
--In the latest scientific questioning of homeopathy, an analysis of more than 200 international trials concludes the alternative medicine system may make patients feel better, but the impact is no greater than that of the placebo effect -- a beneficial result that occurs because of a patient's expectation that the therapy will help.
--Practitioners and proponents of homeopathy dispute that the "homeopathic effect" is merely psychological.
Ran with fact box "What homeopathy's all about" which has been appended to the story.
© Alberni Valley Times 2005