Homeopathy is a form of alternative medicine that embraces the concept that one can heal oneself with illness-inducing substances in tiny quantities: substance that causes the symptoms of a disease in healthy people will cure similar symptoms in sick people. A study released by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) noted that no quality evidence exists to support the claim that homeopathy is effective in treating health conditions.
The authors note that the report was released following a thorough review of available evidence, and was conducted as a component of NHMRC’s responsibility to provide advice and support informed healthcare decisions by the Australian community. The conclusions were the result of a thorough evaluation of more than 1800 papers. Among them, 225 studies met the criteria to be included in NHMRC’s examination of the effectiveness of homeopathy.
The reviewers did not find any good quality, well-designed studies with enough participants to support the concept that homeopathy is more effective than a placebo, or causes health improvements equal to those of another treatment. Some studies did report that homeopathy was effective; however, the quality of those studies was considered to be small and/or of poor quality. These studies had either too few participants, poor design, poor conduct, and/or reporting to permit reliable conclusions to be drawn on the effectiveness of homeopathy.
NHMRC CEO Professor Warwick Anderson noted, “All medical treatments and interventions should be underpinned by reliable evidence. NHMRC’s review shows that there is no good quality evidence to support the claim that homeopathy works better than a placebo.” He placed emphasis on the NHMRC Statement on Homeopathy’s advice that homeopathy should not be used to treat conditions that are chronic, serious, or could become serious, It states: “People who choose homeopathy may put their health at risk if they reject or delay treatments for which there is good evidence for safety and effectiveness. People who are considering whether to use homeopathy should first get advice from a registered health practitioner and in the meanwhile keep taking any prescribed treatments.
Professor Warwick stressed that healthcare practitioners should always offer treatments and therapies based on the best available evidence. He explained, “Each year NHMRC funds research to test treatments and procedures offered to patients, with more than $320 million spent on clinical and health services research in 2014… NHMRC conducts reviews of evidence on a range of health topics which is developed into guidelines or advice. Examples include clinical practice guidelines on the management of overweight and obesity and the Australian Dietary Guidelines. It is important that the public has access to independent, high quality advice when it comes to making decisions about their healthcare.”
