Homeopathy:
The Debate Continues
A New Study Suggesting That This Alternative
Treatment Is Effective on Ear Infections Settles . . . Nothing
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Tuesday, March 6,
2001; Page HE07
"Homeopathy is probably the least accepted alternative therapy among
conventional physicians -- and one more study isn't going to change that,"
says Adriane Fugh-Berman, assistant clinical professor of health care sciences
at George Washington University School of Medicine and author of
"Alternative Medicine: What Works." Most recent, well-designed trials
have shown negative results for homeopathy, she adds, including homeopathic treatments
for warts in children and for radiation burns in breast cancer patients.
Homeopathic treatment is based on the theory of "like cures like."
A substance that can cause certain symptoms when given in large doses to a
healthy person is prescribed in very small doses to a sick individual in an
effort to cure those symptoms. Remedies are tailored to the individual, based
on symptoms.
A basic gripe against homeopathy is that despite anecdotal claims of its
value for more than a century, it remains a scientifically unproven therapy
that uses medicines often containing no detectable amount of active ingredient.
Detractors -- and there are many -- consider homeopathic remedies to be nothing
more than placebo and have rejected study after study as flawed and inconclusive.
Family physician Jennifer Jacobs of Seattle, principal investigator of the
ear infection study, is trying to introduce more science into the emotional
back-and-forth by conducting rigorous testing of homeopathy and publishing her
findings in peer-reviewed journals.
Jacobs's latest effort, in February's issue of Pediatric Infectious Disease
Journal, is a randomized, double-blinded study of acute otitis media, or
inflammation of the middle ear, mostly using four homeopathic remedies, each
normally indicated for a different set of symptoms. The results showed that
children receiving homeopathy had a statistically significant reduction in
symptoms in the first 24 hours after treatment, Jacobs says.
The best first-line of therapy for ear infections is not to reach for
antibiotics but to strengthen the body's natural defenses, in this case by
using homeopathic remedies, insists Jacobs, clinical assistant professor in the
department of epidemiology at the University of Washington School of Public
Health and Community Medicine. Increasingly, she says, pediatricians are taking
a "watchful waiting" approach, using antibiotics only if infections
don't clear up in a few days, as the vast majority do.
But Fugh-Berman says there were no significant differences in treatment
failures (children withdrawn from the study because of severe ear pain and/or
high fever) between the group getting homeopathic medicines and the placebo
group. She also notes there wasn't a consistent difference between the groups
in symptom relief: The homeopathic group had fewer symptoms at 24 hours, but
more symptoms at 48 hours. She concludes the study "did not show
impressive results for homeopathy."
Wayne Jonas, former director of the National Center for Complementary and
Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, says Jacobs's study
of 75 children 18 months to 6 years old, while rigorous science from an
established researcher, "does not convince me otitis media should be
treated with homeopathy. . . . This shouldn't change standard practice -- but
it may offer us a new option for approaching otitis media if results are
confirmed with a larger study," says Jonas, a family physician in Bethesda
who uses some homeopathy in his practice.
Jacobs conducted the first double-blind study of homeopathy published in the
United States, which found that homeopathic treatment helped children with mild
diarrhea. Fugh-Berman calls it "a reasonably done trial" -- but the
1994 study is lambasted on the Web site www.quackwatch.com.
-- Judy Packer-Tursman
© 2001
The Washington Post Company