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1 Nehru Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital, Defence Address for correspondence Raj Kumar Manchanda, BHMS, MD
Colony, New Delhi, India (Hom), MBA (Health Care), Nehru Homoeopathic Medical College and
2 Directorate of AYUSH, Govt. of Delhi, India Hospital, Defence Colony, New Delhi 110024, India
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3 Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Amity (e-mail: rkmanchanda@gmail.com).
Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh,
India
Homeopathy
Abstract Objective The aim of the study was to identify indicated homeopathic remedies based on
the clinical characteristics of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients in India.
Methods In this retrospective, cohort study, confirmed COVID-19 patients admit-
ted at a COVID Health Centre in New Delhi between April 29 and June 17, 2020 were
given conventional and homeopathic treatment. Patients were grouped into mild,
moderate or severe categories of disease. Their symptomatologic profiles were
analyzed to identify indicated homeopathic medicines.
Results A total of 196 COVID-19 patients were admitted. One hundred and seventy-
eight patients had mild symptoms; eighteen patients had moderate symptoms; no
patients with severe symptoms were included as they were referred to tertiary care
centers with ventilatory support. The mean age of patients with mild symptoms was
significantly lower (38.6 years; standard deviation or SD 15.8) compared with
patients in the moderate category (66.0 years; SD 9.09). The most important
symptoms identified were fever (43.4%), cough (47.4%), sore throat (29.6%),
headache (18.4%), myalgia (17.9%), fatigue (16.8%), chest discomfort (13.8%), chills
(12.6%), shortness of breath (11.2%) and loss of taste (10.2%). Twenty-eight
homeopathic medicines were prescribed, the most frequently indicated being
Bryonia alba (33.3%), Arsenicum album (18.1%), Pulsatilla nigricans (13.8%), Nux vomica
(8%), Rhus toxicodendron (7.2%) and Gelsemium sempervirens (5.8%), in 30C potency.
Keywords
Conclusion Data from the current study reveal that Arsenicum album, Bryonia alba,
► COVID-19
Pulsatilla nigricans, Nux vomica, Rhus toxicodendron and Gelsemium sempervirens are
► SARS-CoV-2 infection
the most frequently indicated homeopathic medicines. A randomized controlled
► Genus Epidemicus
clinical trial based on this finding is the next step.
► Homeopathy
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lungs.3,4 If a remedy or group of remedies is found to be efficacious,
Although COVID-19 is a polymorphic disease, its severity these can then be integrated in the treatment protocols of
is classified on the basis of respiratory manifestations: mild COVID patients. The third step might then be to explore the
(uncomplicated upper respiratory tract infection without potential of these remedies in preventing the disease
evidence of breathlessness or hypoxia; SpO2 >94%); moder- through rigorous RCTs in high-risk population groups and
ate (pneumonia with no signs of severe disease, SpO2 <94% disease hot spots.29
[90–94%] on room air, respiratory rate more than or equal to This article addresses the above first step: systematic
24/min); severe (clinical signs of pneumonia plus one of the characterization of the clinical presentation of COVID-19 in
following; respiratory rate >30 breaths/min, severe respira- Indian patients, and identification of corresponding homeo-
tory distress, SpO2 <90%).5 pathic medicines for incorporation in treatment regimens. It
COVID-19 has affected over 20 million individuals world- is expected to be a stepping-stone for further studies for
wide, causing a large number of deaths and posing a serious systematic validation.
threat to public health.6 In India, as of July 13, 2020, nearly
0.9 million patients have tested positive, of whom more than Objectives
0.1 million are from Delhi.7 The primary objective was to identify the clinical presenta-
This pandemic has led researchers and health care orga- tion of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patients and identify
nizations to develop strategies to combat this infectious a group of indicated homeopathic remedies based on their
disease through repurposed drugs, vaccines and control meas- symptomatologic profile.
ures.8 Evidence from laboratory, animal and clinical studies, The secondary objective was to compare the collected
and clinical trials on conventional medicine drugs such as data with those from similar studies in order to inform the
remdesivir,9 lopinavir/ritonavir,10 lopinavir/ritonavir with in- design of a suitable RCT.
terferon β-1a,11 chloroquine,12,13 and hydroxychloroquine,14
have been reported. Treatment with convalescent plasma has
Materials and Methods
been proposed as a potential treatment in severe cases.15 To
date, however, no anti-SARS-CoV-2 drug or vaccine has been Setting
officially approved due to the absence of adequate evidence.16 Nehru Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital (NHMCH),
So far, the therapeutic strategies to deal with this pandemic are Defense Colony, New Delhi, was designated as a COVID
conservative, with limited options in terms of treatment Health Centre by the Department of Health and Family
modalities. Welfare, Government of NCT of Delhi, for the isolation and
The pandemic has uniquely challenged health care deci- treatment of COVID-19-positive patients, providing integrat-
sion makers and the medical research community world- ed care comprising conventional treatment (analgesic, anti-
wide due to the absence of a vaccine or proven therapy. There allergic, anti-tussive, antibiotics) and adjunctive individual-
is a potential role for a prudent strategy to integrate tradi- ized homeopathic treatment.30 Six homeopathic doctors,
tional medicine with conventional medicine to combat the Junior Residents pursuing post-graduation and four conven-
present situation.17 A recent systematic review suggested tional doctors were deputed in a duty roster of 12 h. All
that the integration of traditional Chinese medicine with infection control guidelines, including use of appropriate
“western medicine” improved cure rate with better symp- personal protection equipment, were followed by the medi-
tom amelioration in COVID‐19.18 Similarly, homeopathy cal as well as support staff.
could also be seen as a potential adjunct to conventional Development of the protocol and study design, manu-
medicine. script writing, and coordination was done by doctors with
Homeopathy has a long-standing history in the manage- 20 years of experience. The ethical clearance from the
ment of epidemic diseases.19 In terms of the evidence base, Institutional Ethics Committee was obtained on June 2,
homoeopathy trials have pursued the following: tested 2020 for undertaking retrospective analysis of patients
preventive homeopathic medicines, where the focus has admitted in the hospital.
Patients signed an informed consent form at the time of Table 1 Demographic details
admission for add-on homeopathic treatment and subse-
quent data analysis and publication. A patient case record Total Mild Moderate
form (CRF) was used for case taking, based on the World (n ¼ 196) (n ¼ 178) (n ¼ 18)
Health Organization (WHO) format for COVID-19.31 The Age
patient data were anonymized by removing direct identifier Mean 38.9 16.3 38.6 15.8 66.0 9.1
variables for the analysis. The patients were jointly treated by
Median 35.5 35 68
this medical team and the work was supervised by doctors
Gender
with 35 years’ experience each. Epidemiological history,
demographic data, clinical characteristics, laboratory data, Male 142 128 14
treatment programs and outcome measures were obtained Female 54 50 4
from the patients’ medical records. Homeopathic character-
istic data were obtained by daily follow-up during hospital
stay. Initially the patients were discharged only after two (5.1%) deteriorated due to persistent fever, breathlessness
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consecutive negative tests for RT-PCR; later on, patients were and oxygen concentration <90%, and were then considered
discharged after complete recovery of symptoms, usually under the severe category. Remedies were worked out after
between 10 and 17 days as per the government guidelines. repertorization of these severe cases, but since the study
hospital setting did not have an intensive care unit to manage
Participants severe or critical cases, these patients were transferred and
Laboratory confirmed COVID-19-positive (reported positive could not be evaluated for outcome from the adjunctive
on RT-PCR testing) symptomatic patients were admitted to homeopathic medicines. The mean duration of stay of the
NHMCH between April 29, 2020 and June 17, 2020. 196 patients patients at NHMCH was 13 days (10–17 days).
The predominant symptoms of disease were cough (47.4%),
Variables fever (43.4%) and sore throat (29.6%) (►Table 2).
These comprised demographic details and clinical symptoms The detailed homeopathic clinical analysis of major symp-
of COVID-19-positive patients. toms revealed that fever was predominantly low grade with
prolonged heat stage (17.8%), with the concomitant symp- The condition of 5.1% patients deteriorated during the study
tom of dryness of mouth (9.7%). Dry cough was reported in 50 and they were referred to a tertiary care center with ventila-
(25.5%) patients, whilst sputum during cough was reported tor support. Though improvement and recovery were ob-
in 43 (21.9%) patients. Amongst the 43 patients with produc- served in most cases, further studies are needed to evaluate
tive cough, it was observed that 28 (14.2%) had easy expec- the outcome from homeopathic medicines on variables such
toration and 19 (9.6%) had whitish sputum (►Table 3). as time to clinical improvement and laboratory parameters.
Homeopathic treatment was provided to 138 patients Homeopathic medicines were given in conjunction with
alongside standard conventional treatment. Cases were rep- standard conventional treatment and it was observed that
ertorized with Synthesis Repertory Radar Opus, with special most of the patients under this hybrid system (standard
emphasis on characteristic symptoms. Repertorial analysis protocol plus homeopathy) recovered without major com-
of the collective symptoms of these patients indicated 28 plications. The effectiveness of the homeopathy element of
medicines in total. Medicines were given in different poten- this combined protocol might be explored in subsequent
cies (LM, 30C, 200C). The most frequently used medicines studies by comparing conventional treatment plus homeo-
were Bryonia alba (33.3%), Arsenicum album (18.1%), Pulsa- pathic treatment with conventional treatment plus placebo.
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tilla nigricans (13.8%), Nux vomica (8%), Rhus toxicodendron Datasets from clinical studies conducted at various hos-
(7.2%), and Gelsemium sempervirens (5.8%). 30C was the most pitals internationally were compiled to compare their clini-
commonly used potency (n ¼ 120) (►Table 4). cal and demographic features with those of Indian COVID-19
Subsequently, patients’ expression (symptoms) and signs patients. Most of the top-ranking symptoms observed in this
(objective clinical features) of disease were extracted from study were also found in an observational study by Guan
CRFs. These were converted into rubrics (group keywords) et al, except for much greater prevalence of sore throat in the
using a dictionary-based approach (repertory). This informa- current study.4 Similar comparison with data reported in a
tion was compiled for the top six medicines: namely Bryonia cohort study of 41 patients undertaken by Huang et al in
alba, Arsenicum album, Pulsatilla nigricans, Nux vomica, Rhus Wuhan underscores that finding.34 Another similar study
toxicodendron, and Gelsemium sempervirens (►Table 5). reported that Bryonia alba and Arsenicum album are the most
frequently prescribed medicines (in 30C potency) for symp-
tomatic COVID-19-positive patients treated by homeopathic
Discussion
physicians in Italy.35 Others reported that Bryonia alba and
The full-recovery rate of COVID-19-positive patients was 78% Gelsemium sempervirens were the most commonly pre-
and the average duration of stay in the hospital was 13 days. scribed medicines in 18 mild COVID-19 cases in Hong
Kong.36
Table 3 Detailed clinical analysis of chief symptoms The current study has paved a way to conduct a multi-
center, prospective, randomized double-blind controlled
Chief Characteristic trial of homeopathic medicines for COVID-19 patients using
complaint
the identified medicines.
Fever (n ¼ 85) Low grade Chill (n ¼ 18) COVID-19 has presented a challenge for the scientific
(43.3%) (<37.5–38.3°C) (9.1%)
community in terms of size of dataset and heterogeneity.
(n ¼ 62) (31.6%)
The homeopathy community is facing similar challenges in
>38.3°C (n ¼ 23) Heat (n ¼ 35)
terms of fragmented initiatives, lack of high-quality clinical
(11.7%) (17.8%)
data, unavailability of trained manpower, issues with data
Perspiration collection, and lack of high quality observational and con-
(n ¼ 12) (6.1%)
trolled studies. Artificial intelligence systems such as “ma-
Cough (n ¼ 93) Dry (n ¼ 50) Thirst increased chine learning” (ML) can play an important role in addressing
(47.4%) (25.5%) (n ¼ 30) (15.3%)
these challenges.37–41 Future studies in ML can provide data-
Productive (n ¼ 43) Expectoration: driven clinical decision-making for improving treatment
(21.9%)
Easy (n ¼ 28) outcomes, consistency in prescribing, identification of a set
(14.2%) of medicines useful in COVID-19, and identification of
Difficult (n ¼ 8) repurposed existing drugs. When large datasets become
(4.1%) available, ML algorithms will be used and reported in a
Color: future publication from our research group.
White (n ¼ 19)
(9.6%) Study Limitations
Although the majority of cases improved and were dis-
Yellow (n ¼ 16)
(8.1%) charged, the positive outcome cannot be solely attributed
to homeopathic medicines since patients were also given
Transparent
conventional drugs. This disease is also known for its self-
(n ¼ 3) (1.5%)
limiting course of 5 to 14 days in mild cases, and there was no
Bloody (n ¼ 1)
control arm to assess the effectiveness. The institute had
(0.5%)
limited laboratory resources and no radiology support.
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cBryonia General: slow manifestation 46
Nux vomica 11 7.97% alba
Cough: dry, fever during 37
30 C 8
Stomach: thirst, large 23
200 C 3 quantities, for
Rhus toxicodendron 10 7.25% Stool: constipation 16
30 C 9 Generals: pain, bones, as if 16
200 C 1 broken
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Throat: pain, warm drinks 8 • A retrospective cohort study on laboratory-confirmed
ameliorate
symptomatic patients was thus conducted in a COVID
Chill: violent 7 hospital in New Delhi, India.
Mouth: taste, bitter 6 • Based on symptomatology profile, six homeopathic
Chest: pain, burning 6 medicines have been shortlisted for further evaluation.
doctors, Aditya Nag, Kavita Trivedi, Anmol Giri, Parimal 16 Li H, Zhou Y, Zhang M, Wang H, Zhao Q, Liu J. Updated approaches
Patel, in giving standard treatment to patients. We thank against SARS-CoV-2. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2020;64:
Dr. Philippa Fibert for critical review and linguistic cor- e00483–e20
17 Ganguly S, Bakhshi S. Traditional and complementary medicine
rection of the submitted manuscript.
during COVID-19 pandemic. Phytother Res 2020. Doi: 10.1002/
We are grateful to Dr. Wilmar Schwabe India Ltd. for ptr.6828
providing a set of homeopathic remedies used in this 18 Liu M, Gao Y, Yuan Y, et al. Efficacy and safety of integrated
study. We acknowledge Laboratory colleagues (Kartik, traditional Chinese and Western medicine for Corona virus
Preeti P., Swarasat, Akshat Gupta, Akshit Gupta) of Dr. disease 2019 (COVID-19): a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Pharmacol Res 2020;158:104896
Kamal Rawal at Amity University for their assistance in
19 Jacobs J. Homeopathic prevention and management of epidemic
data curation and compilation. We are indebted to all
diseases. Homeopathy 2018;107:157–160
patients who consented to have their clinical history used 20 Nunes LAS. Homeopathy and dengue: Macaé, Rio de Janeiro,
for anonymized analysis, and to all medical and paramed- Brazil, 2007–2012. Rev Homeopatia 2016;79:1–16
ical staff members of Nehru Homeopathic Medical College 21 Prass-Santos C, Brina NT, Magalhães IL, et al. Report on the use of
and Hospital. homeopathic medication in the prophylaxis of dengue in Belo Hori-
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zonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, in 2010. Rev Homeopatia 2012;75:1–12
22 Bracho G, Varela E, Fernández R, et al. Large-scale application of
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