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Is homeopathy cost-effective?

Some people take the position that public money should not be spent on homeopathy because “there is no proof that it works” or “tax-payers money shouldn’t be spent on placebos”. How much does homeopathy cost? In 2016, just £92,412 was spent on 40,000 homeopathy prescriptions from a total expenditure of £9.2 billion.1 Out of the […]

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Are there good quality trials showing homeopathy works?

Many people believe that all high quality randomised controlled trials (RCT) testing homeopathy have been negative. This is untrue. Below are examples of positive high quality  and  testing various types of homeopathy: Individualised homeopathic treatment for diarrhoea in children. A meta-analysis of three placebo-controlled randomised trials by Jacobs et al. 2003 showed that homeopathic treatment […]

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Essential evidence

 

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The Swiss HTA report on homeopathy

A Health Technology Assessment report1 was commissioned by the Swiss health authorities to inform decision-making on the further inclusion of homoeopathy in the list of services covered by statutory health insurance. According to the authors, their report “confirms homoeopathy as a valuable addition to the conventional medical landscape – a status it has been holding for a […]

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HRI meets with Public Health England (PHE)

PHE is an executive agency of the Department of Health, which aims to protect and improve the nation’s health and wellbeing, and reduce health inequalities. At a Parliamentary meeting earlier this year, Duncan Selbie (Chief Executive) presented some of PHE’s specific targets, such as encouraging self-care and promoting healthier lifestyles, which are key elements of […]

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How does homeopathy compare to conventional medicine?

Studies comparing the effectiveness of homeopathy and conventional medicine have shown that homeopathy can produce as good as, or even better results than conventional medicine. Treatment of specific medical conditions Upper respiratory tract infections A multi-centred international study found that homeopathic treatment in primary care was non-inferior to conventional treatment for acute upper respiratory and […]

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Why do expert scientists think homeopathy is possible?

Not all scientists believe homeopathy is impossible. Prof Luc Montagnier, who won a Nobel prize in 2008 for his role in discovering HIV, says homeopaths are right to use these high dilutions. In an interview for Science magazine, when asked, “Do you think there’s something to homeopathy…?” he replied, “…What I can say now is that […]

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What scientific evidence is there that homeopathy works?

The scientific evidence for homeopathy is based on the same types of clinical trials as those used to test conventional medical treatments. By the end of 2022, 271 randomised controlled trials of homeopathic treatment for 144 medical conditions have been published in peer-reviewed journals with sufficient information provided to analyse the results. Of these, 157 […]

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The Lancet paper by Shang et al.

In August 2005, the Lancet published a study1 which was reported as having compared 110 similar trials on homeopathy and conventional medicine, and reached the conclusion that homeopathy is no better than placebo. An accompanying editorial entitled ‘The end of homoeopathy’2 lead to widespread media attention. However, the conclusions of this study were based on only 8 of the 110 trials, none […]

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UK Science & Technology report

It is often reported that there is no evidence homeopathy works or that the current evidence base shows homeopathy is no better than placebo. Neither statement is correct. Such misconceptions stem largely from two documents – the UK House of Commons Science and Technology Committee ‘Evidence Check 2: Homeopathy’ report, and the more recent Information Paper on […]

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