Homeopathy for Menopausal Symptoms in Breast Cancer Survivors: A Preliminary Randomized Controlled Trial

Jacobs, Jennifer; Herman, Patricia M.; Heron, Krista; Olsen, Steven R.; Vaughters, Lucy

doi:10.1089/acm.2005.11.21

Cited by 85 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 10 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…A total of 22 trials (54%) reported both sample size calculations and intention to treat analyses. Eight trials (20%) did not report sample size calculations or intention to treat analyses (53,57,60,61,64,67,68,73). Four of these studies also had a methodological quality of B (medium quality) (53,64,67,73).…”

Section: Methodological Quality Of the Rctsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adverse effects of homeopathy, what do we know? A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Kristoffersen

Alræk

Liu

2016

Complementary Therapies in Medicine

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Highlights:• This review address the naive assumption that because of the generally diluted doses used homeopathy must be safe• This review touches the neglected issue of the distinction between homeopathic aggravation, adverse reactions and adverse effects• We found a similar risk for homeopathic treatment compared to controls such as placebo and conventional medicine. Words: 5,187 Abstract ObjectivesHomeopathy is a popular treatment modality among patient, however there is sparse research about adverse effects of homeopathy. A concept unique for homeopathy, is homeopathic aggravation that is understood as a transient worsening of the patients' symptoms before an 2 expected improvement occurs. From a risk perspective it is vital that a distinction between homeopathic aggravations and adverse effects is established. There is a lack of systematic information on how frequent adverse effects and homeopathic aggravations are reported in studies. Therefore, a systematic review and meta-analysis were performed. Design and settingSixteen electronic databases were searched for Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs). The searches were limited from the year 1995 to January 2011. Forty-one RCTs, with a total of 6.055 participants were included. A subtotal of 39 studies was included in the additional metaanalysis. ResultsA total of 28 trials (68%) reported adverse effects and five trials (12%) reported homeopathic aggravations. The meta-analysis (including six subgroup comparisons) demonstrated that no significant difference was found between homeopathy and control with OR 0.99, 95% CI 0.86 to 1.14, I 2 = 54%. More than two third of the adverse effects were classified as grade 1 (68%) and two third were classified as grade 2 (25%) and grade 3 (6%) according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Effects. Homeopathic aggravation was classified as grade 1 (98%) and grade 3 (2%), suggesting that homeopathic aggravations were reported to be less severe than adverse effects. The methodological quality according to a method recommended in the Cochrane handbook for RCTs, was high. ConclusionAdverse effects including the concept of homeopathic aggravations are commonly reported in trials. The meta-analysis demonstrated that the proportion of patients experiencing adverse effects to be similar for patients randomized to homeopathic treatment compared to patients randomized to placebo and conventional medicine.

show abstract

Section: Methodological Quality Of the Rctsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adverse effects of homeopathy, what do we know? A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Kristoffersen

Alræk

Liu

2016

Complementary Therapies in Medicine

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Even though the results were not positive for improving hot flushes, one cannot ignore a significant improvement in general health score that was observed in both homeopathy groups as compared with the placebo group. Researchers concluded that breast cancer survivors did have some positive benefit from the use of homeopathic remedies [25].…”

Section: Homeopathy Combined With Conventional Cancer Carementioning

confidence: 99%

Is There a Role for Homeopathy in Cancer Care? Questions and Challenges

Frenkel

2015

Curr Oncol Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Patients with cancer commonly use complementary and integrative medicine, including homeopathy. Homeopathy has grown in popularity with the public but is viewed with skepticism by medical academia and is still excluded from conventionally prescribed treatments. In recent years, homeopathy has been used in cancer care in Europe and other countries worldwide. This use raised the question if there is any benefit in utilizing this type of care with cancer patients. The purpose of this manuscript is to explore the evidence related to the benefit of homeopathy in cancer care. Limited research has suggested that homeopathic remedies appear to cause cellular changes in some cancer cells. In animal models, several homeopathic remedies have had an inhibitory effect on certain tumor development. Some clinical studies of homeopathic remedies combined with conventional care have shown that homeopathic remedies improve quality of life, reduce symptom burden, and possibly improve survival in patients with cancer. The findings from several lab and clinical studies suggest that homeopathy might have some beneficial effect in cancer care; however, further large, comprehensive clinical studies are needed to determine these beneficial effects. Although additional studies are needed to confirm these findings, given the low cost, minimal risks, and the potential magnitude of homeopathy's effects, this use might be considered in certain situations as an additional tool to integrate into cancer care.

show abstract

“…Some homeopaths report significant clinical remissions and cures of the primary cancer disease process, 51 in addition to palliation of adjunctive symptoms from the disease and conventional cancer treatments such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy. [52][53][54] Mainstream researchers at the cutting edge of conventional medicine have explicitly recognized that cancer biology is complex and multifactorial. Systems biologists are grappling with the reality that different people can exhibit the same phenotype but arrive at the same "destination" via multiple different, multifactorial pathways.…”

Section: Systems Biology In Medicine and Cancer Research: A Bridge Tomentioning

confidence: 99%

Models for the Study of Whole Systems

Bell¹,

Koithan

2006

Integr Cancer Ther

110

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article summarizes a network and complex systems science model for research on whole systems of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) such as homeopathy and traditional Chinese medicine. The holistic concepts of networks and nonlinear dynamical complex systems are well matched to the global and interactive perspectives of whole systems of CAM, whereas the reductionistic science model is well matched to the isolated local organ, cell, and molecular mechanistic perspectives of pharmaceutically based biomedicine. Whole systems of CAM are not drugs with specific actions. The diagnostic and therapeutic approaches of whole systems of CAM produce effects that involve global and patterned shifts across multiple subsystems of the person as a whole. For homeopathy, several characteristics of complex systems, including the probabilistic nature of attractor patterns, variable sensitivity of complex systems to initial conditions, and emergent behaviors in the evolution of a system in its full environmental context over time, could help account for the mixed basic science and controlled clinical trial research findings, in contrast with the consistently positive outcomes of observational studies in the literature. Application of theories and methods from complex systems and network science can open a new era of advances in understanding factors that lead to good versus poor individual global outcome patterns and to rational triage of patients to one type of care over another. The growing reliance on complex systems thinking and systems biology for cancer research affords a unique opportunity to bridge between the CAM and conventional medical worlds with some common language and conceptual models.

show abstract

Homeopathy for Menopausal Symptoms in Breast Cancer Survivors: A Preliminary Randomized Controlled Trial

Cited by 85 publications

References 10 publications

Adverse effects of homeopathy, what do we know? A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Adverse effects of homeopathy, what do we know? A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Is There a Role for Homeopathy in Cancer Care? Questions and Challenges

Models for the Study of Whole Systems

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About