Influence of adjunctive classical homeopathy on global health status and subjective wellbeing in cancer patients – A pragmatic randomized controlled trial☆

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Summary

Objectives

The use of complementary and alternative medicine has increased over the past decade. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether homeopathy influenced global health status and subjective wellbeing when used as an adjunct to conventional cancer therapy.

Design

In this pragmatic randomized controlled trial, 410 patients, who were treated by standard anti-neoplastic therapy, were randomized to receive or not receive classical homeopathic adjunctive therapy in addition to standard therapy. The study took place at the Medical University Vienna, Department of Medicine I, Clinical Division of Oncology.

Main outcome measures

The main outcome measures were global health status and subjective wellbeing as assessed by the patients. At each of three visits (one baseline, two follow-up visits), patients filled in two different questionnaires.

Results

373 patients yielded at least one of three measurements. The improvement of global health status between visits 1 and 3 was significantly stronger in the homeopathy group by 7.7 (95% CI 2.3–13.0, p = 0.005) when compared with the control group. A significant group difference was also observed with respect to subjective wellbeing by 14.7 (95% CI 8.5–21.0, p < 0.001) in favor of the homeopathic as compared with the control group. Control patients showed a significant improvement only in subjective wellbeing between their first and third visits.

Conclusion

Results suggest that the global health status and subjective wellbeing of cancer patients improve significantly when adjunct classical homeopathic treatment is administered in addition to conventional therapy.

Section snippets

Study design

The study was approved by the Ethical Committee of the Medical University of Vienna on November 4, 2008; # 513/2008. Included were all patients over 18 years of age prior to their first conventional treatment (chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgical therapy) who signed an informed consent form. The only exclusion criteria were inability to comply with the study protocol, and the mental inability to fill out the questionnaires. On their first visit, patients were told by an administrative

Patients’ characteristics (Fig. 1 and Table 1)

The study screened 453 patients, of whom 43 did not consent to participate. The remaining 410 were randomized. After randomization, 37 patients dropped out (16 in the homeopathy group, 21 in control). Thus, 373 patients received allocated treatment (194 in the homeopathy group, and 179 in the control group). 335 patients 173 patients in the adjunctive homeopathy group and 162 controls made the first two of the planned three clinic visits and completed the two sets of questionnaires. 137

Discussion

In this phase II study, we offered cancer patients with different malignancies structured access to homeopathy in addition to their conventional treatment. The study investigated the homeopathic method as such, not specific remedies. In a pragmatic trial, we evaluated the whole “homeopathic package,” including exploration and medication. To our knowledge, this is the first prospective randomized controlled phase II study that has evaluated the influence of complementary homeopathic treatment in

Conclusions

The results achieved in some three decades of research into homeopathic cancer treatment do not yet justify use of homeopathy as an alternative to conventional cancer therapy. On the other hand, there is a growing corpus of evidence indicating that homeopathy may play a significant role in integrative oncology as a supportive therapy. We believe our results bolster this view and suggest that global health status and subjective wellbeing of cancer patients can be significantly improved with

Conflict of interest

No competing financial interests exist. No funding had been obtained for this study from any source.

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    Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT00861432.

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