Can Homeopathy Play a Role in the Treatment of Multimorbid Patients? A Prospective Outcome Study

Abstract

Polypharmacy is one of the main problems in conventional treatment of multimorbid patients who have a combination of three or more concurrent complaints. They often receive a multitude of medicines with interactions that are difficult to overlook. In complementary medicine a holistic approach is one of the core-competences of homeopathy. Repeated single remedies or a staggered timing of different remedies can induce improvement in multimorbid patients without causing interactions. In a prospective homeopathic outcome study we followed 50 multimorbid patients over one year, aiming to answer the following questions: How many patients can be successfully treated and reach an subjective global improvement rating of 80% or more. And how do the estimated costs of conventional and homeopathic treatment compare, if conventional treatment can be reduced or phased out completely.
Results: Fourtythree patients (86%) completed the observation reaching an average improvement of 91% of their initial symptoms. Six patients dropped out, and one did not reach an improvement of 80%, and was therefore also counted as a treatment failure. The cost of homeopathic treatment is estimated to be only 41% of an analogue conventional therapy.
Conclusions: Homeopathy is able to cover a considerable part of the treatment of multimorbid patients, and it causes lower costs than conventional medicine.