ECHAMP News October 2005Page 2
George Lewith (University of Southampton, UK)
:
The six studies of conventional interventions arehighly selected. The substances have gone throughfour clinical pharmacological stages of drug test-ing. The vast majority of newly developed do notmake it to that last stage of Phase IV trials. There-fore the trials chosen by Shang had already beenproven to be efficacious. Homeopathic trials startfrom a far less systematic and rigorous evidencebase. There have, after all, been very few RCT’s inhomeopathy which is why there is an absence of evidence.
We are only just beginning to under-stand how to research homeopathy and CAM in general. This seems to be an argument for moreresearch investment, not less.
Prof. Iris Bell (University of Arizona, USA)
:
Thepolitics of the homeopathy debate right now are soblatant, as the position against homeopathyignores the observational data and the animal dataand the preclinical data in the literature asthought they did not exist, let alone that theyshow significant effects and unique properties of remedies.
Sally Penrose (Chief Executive of the Faculty of Homeopathy, UK)
: “Patient outcomes studiesat the NHS homeopathic hospitals show that onaverage 70% of patients report positive healthchanges after homeopathic treatments – thesepatients who have usually exhausted all theconventional options first and are coping withintolerable suffering.”
Mikel Aickin (Biostatistician University Arizona,USA)
: After distinguishing five areas in which theLancet does not meet the minimum conventionalcriteria for publication in medicine, he observes “acontinued degradation of methods in biomedicalresearch, supported by “leading” journals” andponders that it might be time to think about the“End of Biomedical Journals” as we know them.The duty of publishing all funded research andmuch of the unfunded research could be laid inhands of a body like the National Institutesof Health (NIH), through the National Library of Medicine. That would safeguard an operationunder rational regulations.(FB)
S
WISS STUDY DEMONSTRATES THE EFFECT OFHOMEOPATHY IN HYPERACTIVE CHILDREN
(FB) A study performed by KIKOM (KollegialenInstanz für Komplementärmedizin der UniversitätBern) and the “Medizinischen UnivertitätsklinikBern” has demonstrated the efficacy of homeo-pathic medicinal products in children with anAttention Deficit Syndrome (ADS). The study waspublished in the “European Journal of Paediat-rics”. The findings are in opposition of the recentlypublished meta-analysis by the “Institut für Sozial-und Präventivmedizin” of the Bern University la-belling homeopathy to be just a placebo effect.An interdisciplinary research team of that Univer-sity directed by Dr. med Heiner Frei came to theconclusion that ADS symptoms like hyper activity,shyness or anxiety decreased by 37 till 63 percent.The learning behaviour improved and the durationof the positive effect was for a longer period of time.From 2001 to 2005 theresearchers followed theeffects of homeopathictreatment in childrenwith ADS. After a neuro-psychological and neuro-logical check the chil-dren were individuallytreated by a homeo-pathic physician. Thedata were collected according to the double blindcross over method. Neither the patient nor thedoctor knew who received the placebo or the realmedicine. During the treatment the children wereregularly examined by a neuro-psychologist.This positive result puts the homeopathictreatment for ADS patients on an equal level withregular medicine, the latter treating the childrenwith medicinal substances which had effects onthe psyche, often with side effects. According toDr. Frei the homeopathic treatment has a favour-able cost effect.
(Source: Deutscher Zentralverein homoepathischer )
I
N MEMORIAM
D
R
.
M
ARIANNE
H
EGER
(FB) For many of us the death of Dr. MarianneHeger came unexpected. Those with whom sheused to work with suspected an illness, however,no clear signals were received about the severity.That made the shock created by her decease evengreater.ECHAMP will rememberMarianne as one of the fewof the first moment whosaw the need for a Euro-pean coalition of manufac-turers of homeopathic me-dicinal products. She de-voted a part of her abun-dant energy in the conver-sion of EACH into ECHAMP.With her vision she had a roadmap clear in hermind and sometimes wondered why others couldnot follow her quick pace.
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