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Collections under which this article appears: Complementary Medicine Asthma Children

Thorax 2003;58:317-321
© 2003 BMJ Publishing Group & British Thoracic Society
 

Individualised homeopathy as an adjunct in the treatment of childhood asthma: a randomised placebo controlled trial

A White¹, P Slade², C Hunt³, A Hart⁴ and E Ernst¹

¹ Complementary Medicine, Peninsula Medical School, Universities of Exeter and Plymouth, Exeter EX2 4NT, UK
² Irnham Lodge Surgery, Townsend Road, Minehead. Somerset, UK
³ Harley House Surgery, Irnham Road, Minehead, Somerset, UK
⁴ Postgraduate School of Medicine and Health, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, UK

Correspondence to:
Dr A White, Department of Complementary Medicine, Peninsula Medical School, 25 Victoria Park Road, Exeter EX2 4NT UK;
adrian.white@pms.ac.uk

Background: Homeopathy is frequently used to treat asthma in children. In the common classical form of homeopathy, prescriptions are individualised for each patient. There has been no rigorous investigation into this form of treatment for asthma.

Methods: In a randomised, double blind, placebo controlled trial the effects of individualised homeopathic remedies were compared with placebo medication in 96 children with mild to moderate asthma as an adjunct to conventional treatment. The main outcome measure was the active quality of living subscale of the Childhood Asthma Questionnaire administered at baseline and follow up at 12 months. Other outcome measures included other subscales of the same questionnaire, peak flow rates, use of medication, symptom scores, days off school, asthma events, global assessment of change, and adverse reactions.

Results: There were no clinically relevant or statistically significant changes in the active quality of life score. Other subscales, notably those measuring severity, indicated relative improvements but the sizes of the effects were small. There were no differences between the groups for other measures.

Conclusions: This study provides no evidence that adjunctive homeopathic remedies, as prescribed by experienced homeopathic practitioners, are superior to placebo in improving the quality of life of children with mild to moderate asthma in addition to conventional treatment in primary care.

Keywords: children; asthma; homeopathy

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