The long-term effects of homeopathic treatment of chronic headaches: one year follow-up and single case time series analysis

Abstract

Little is known about long-term effects of homeopathic treatment. Following a double-blind, placebo controlled trial of classical homeopathy in chronic headaches, we conducted a 1-year observational study of 18 patients following the double-blind phase, and a complete follow-up study of all trial participants. Eighteen patients received free treatment for daily diary data (frequency, intensity, duration of headaches) over the course of 1 y. All patients enrolled in the double-blind study were sent a 6-week headache diary, a follow-up questionnaire, a personality inventory and a complaint list. Eighty-seven, of the original 98 patients enrolled returned questionnaires, 81 returned diaries. There was no additional change from the end of the trial to the one-year follow-up. The improvement seen at the end of the 12-week trial was stable after 1 y. No differential effects according to treatment after the trial could be seen. Patients with no treatment following the trial had the most improvement after 1 y. Five of 18 patients can be counted responders according to ARIMA analysis of single-case time-series. Patients with double diagnoses and longer treatment duration tended to have clearer improvements than the rest of the patients. Approximately 30% of patients in homeopathic treatment will benefit after 1 y of treatment. There is no indication of a specific, or of a delayed effect of homeopathy.

A systematic review of systematic reviews of homeopathy

“…as well as negative clinical trials e.g. [25–27] have emerged. It seems therefore unlikely that these new findings would substantially change the results of any of the systematic reviews were they to be up‐dated.…”

Homeopathic Treatment of Chronic Headache (ICD-9: 784.0) – a Prospective Observational Study with 2-Year Follow-Up

“…Its patients were older than our patients (median verum group = 51 years, median placebo group = 46 years; our study: median = 37.5 years) and had suffered from migraine and/or headache for much longer (mean = 29 years, median = 23 years; our study: median = 14.5 years). In this study the physicians observed that patients were 'much more difficult to treat than the patients that they usually see' [12]. Possibly, the recruitment through advertisements had contributed to the selection of a population that was atypical and 'hard to treat by any standards' [33].…”

Alternative therapies for tension-type headache

“…The initial negative report of 98 chronic headache sufferers was thought to be caused by an observation period that was too short; a long-term follow-up did not demonstrate any difference [45,46].…”