Reporting and investigating adverse effects of homeopathy
The de®nition of what constitutes a homeopathic medicine should be reviewed as currently it can accommodate substances which have never been proved to cause, in healthy volunteers, the symptoms for which they are said to be indicated.
Abstract
Homeopathy has been used by millions of people in different continents for almost 200 years with a widespread belief, shared by practitioners and patients, that it is safe. Up to now little has been done to explore in a more accurate way the question of safety of homeopathic medicines: meta-analysis or systematic reviews of controlled clinical trials showed that homeopathy is more ef®cacious than placebo but do not report on adverse effects of homeopathic medicines. Regulatory agencies, consumers' protection organisations and practitioners need reliable information about the safety of homeopathic medicines. The de®nition of what constitutes a homeopathic medicine should also be reviewed as currently it can accommodate substances which have never been proved to cause, in healthy volunteers, the symptoms for which they are said to be indicated. In addition mixed preparations with plant extracts or other substances in non-diluted preparations which are not applied following the simile principle are sometimes mislabelled as `homeopathic products'. Issues involving risk and safety in homeopathy deserve the full attention from practitioners and researchers. Information on safety was highly rated by commissioners of services of the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital in a recent survey. Many questions remain about the safety of homoeopathic medicines. These include: