 Homeopathic and conventional treatment for acute respiratory and ear complaints - a comparative study on outcome in the primary care setting..pdf | [Homeopathic and conventional treatment for acute respiratory and ear complaints: a comparative study on outcome in the primary care setting.] | 316 kB |
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Homeopathic and conventional treatment for acute respiratory and ear complaints: a comparative study on outcome in the primary care setting.
BMC Complement Altern Med. 2007;7:7. Epub 2007 Mar 2. PMID: 17335565
Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Homeopathy, Graz, Austria. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.<This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.></This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of homeopathy compared to conventional treatment in acute respiratory and ear complaints in a primary care setting.
METHODS: The study was designed as an international, multi-centre, comparative cohort study of non-randomised design. Patients, presenting themselves with at least one chief complaint: acute (
RESULTS: Data of 1,577 patients were evaluated in the full analysis set of which 857 received homeopathic (H) and 720 conventional (C) treatment. The majority of patients in both groups reported their outcome after 14 days of treatment as complete recovery or major improvement (H: 86.9%; C: 86.0%; p = 0.0003 for non-inferiority testing). In the per-protocol set (H: 576 and C: 540 patients) similar results were obtained (H: 87.7%; C: 86.9%; p = 0.0019). Further subgroup analysis of the full analysis set showed no differences of response rates after 14 days in children (H: 88.5%; C: 84.5%) and adults (H: 85.6%; C: 86.6%). The unadjusted odds ratio (OR) of the primary outcome criterion was 1.40 (0.89-2.22) in children and 0.92 (0.63-1.34) in adults. Adjustments for demographic differences at baseline did not significantly alter the OR. The response rates after 7 and 28 days also showed no significant differences between both treatment groups. However, onset of improvement within the first 7 days after treatment was significantly faster upon homeopathic treatment both in children (p = 0.0488) and adults (p = 0.0001). Adverse drug reactions occurred more frequently in adults of the conventional group than in the homeopathic group (C: 7.6%; H: 3.1%, p = 0.0032), whereas in children the occurrence of adverse drug reactions was not significantly different (H: 2.0%; C: 2.4%, p = 0.7838).
CONCLUSION: In primary care, homeopathic treatment for acute respiratory and ear complaints was not inferior to conventional treatment.
