Hering’s Law Assessment Tool Revisited

Abstract

Hering's Law Assessment Tool emerged as a systematic outcome assessment tool following homeopathic intervention. The authors intend to modify it and develop a new tool-Patient Response Assessment Tool after Homeopathic Treatment (PRATHoT)-in chronic cases through Delphi technique for systematic categorization of probable outcomes following individualized homeopathic treatment in chronic cases. The PRATHoT was drafted after literature review and iterative Delphi rounds with multidisciplinary expert panel, setting Fleiss κ of 0.41 to 1.00 a priori as the desired level of multirater agreement. Following pilot testing, the tool was implemented on 37 patients suffering from knee osteoarthritis over 6 months. Logistic regression analysis confirmed that higher PRATHoT score was significantly associated with achieving pain visual analogue scale responses from the second follow-up visit onwards (B = 0.037-0.066; SE = 0.021-0.036; P = .003-.048). The tool appeared to have acceptable psychometric properties; hence, it may be considered as a promising tool, amendable for further development.

Probabilistic Reasoning in Homeopathy Practice and its Implications for Clinical Research

“…These adjustments are guided by the experience and training of the homeopath (and therefore vary according to their experience). The possible reactions of the patient to the first-tested medicine also help in defining the next one 3,4,13,14 This somewhat lengthy explanation is intended to illustrate the statistical and methodological handicap that we mentioned earlier, which is inherent in homeopathy (particularly classical homeopathy) by the very fact that it conforms to its theoretical principles.…”

“…In homeopathy, several authors have proposed benchmarks to assess the modalities of response, 13 14 improvement, or aggravation to homeopathic medicines. 15 All are dependent on the patient's experience and, to our knowledge, there are no predictive factors to date to estimate that a particular medicine will particularly work for a particular patient or even be “their” simillimum .…”

“…These adjustments are guided by the experience and training of the homeopath (and therefore vary according to their experience). The possible reactions of the patient to the first-tested medicine also help in defining the next one 3 4 13 14…”