The best homeopathic trials shows homeopathy is more effective than a placebo by a 2 to 1 basis on trials before 1991. This study is going to examine some more recent trials.
New set of trials done by the Swiss-UK review team showed homeopathy medicines to give the exact same effect as a placebo remedy. This study did have some trial issues and was considered by many not to be a properly conducted trial.
We are going to examine the better done trials since 1991. We will not examine all of them but look at a fair amount of promising and not so promising evidence of properly conducted homeopathic trials.
Homeopathy Studies Below:
Placebo Effect Comparison With Homeopathy
A randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial of 242 participants aged 18 to 55 years. Trial compared an oral homeopathic treatment to placebo in asthmatic people allergic to house dust. Authors found the homeopathic treatment “no better than placebo.” They noted “some differences between the homeopathic immunotherapy and placebo for which we have no explanation.”
This was actually an attempt to replicate a successful homeopathic trial with allergies and asthma. No one could explain why the replication was not successful. This trial was much larger than the initial trial that proved successful.
A homeopathic study with 126 children examined homeopathic effect on acute childhood diarrhea. The study was completed by 116 children. This trial was double blind and placebo controlled. The study showed homeopathic individualized homeopathic medicines improved children with diarrhea as compared to the placebo. This trial matches a previous trial done with diarrhea.
A trial with homeopathic arnica which examined whether this remedy can ease muscle soreness among long distance runners. 519 runners were in the trial with 400 people finishing the study. The study had a placebo group and homeopathic group. The study was randomized and double blinded. The authors showed no differences between the placebo group and the homeopathic group. The authors found arnica to have no effect on muscle soreness for long distance runners.
Six controlled clinical studies of meta analysis were done that indicate homeopathic remedies appear to be more effective than a placebo on rheumatic syndromes. There are not enough trails to draw a definite judgment about homeopathy and the trial conclusions were mixed.
Oscillococcinum shows the most promise out of all the homeopathic remedies. Many large studies proved Oscillococcinum was more effective than a placebo in shortening the duration of the flu. Oscillococcinum had a negative outcome on flu prevention.
More research must be completed before homeopathy medicine will be accepted by the mainstream public. Some homeopathic medicines appear to offer positive results in many double blind placebo trials. Bigger trials after 1991 show a 1 to 1 ratio of positive and negative homeopathic trials.
Studies of great quality before 1991 suggest that homeopathic is more effective than a placebo in 2 out of 3 trials. Several of these trials have been duplicated including Oscillococcinum. This drug was used in several trials. Every trial showed this remedy was more effective than a placebo in reducing the duration of the flu.
Better quality studies before 1991 showed approximately a 2 to 1 ratio of sucessful trials. A couple of the trials have been reproduced in several studies. Oscillococcinum was the only study that we found that was reproduced successfully several times by different researches with a large study group.