Audit of outcome in 455 consecutive patients treated with homeopathic medicines.

This paper reports an audit of clinical outcome in 455 consecutive patients (1100 consultations) presenting for private homeopathic treatment of a chronic illness in which conventional treatment had either: failed, reached a plateau in effect, or was contra-indicated by side effects, age or condition of the patient. Three hundred and four patients (66.8%) derived benefit from homeopathic treatment. One hundred and forty-eight patients (32.5%) were able to stop or maintain a substantial reduction in their conventional drugs. The 10 most frequent clinical conditions treated were eczema, anxiety, depression, osteoarthritis, asthma, back pain, chronic cough, chronic fatigue, headaches and essential hypertension. These 195 patients constitute 43% of the total, 151 of them (77%) were improved. The success rate of treatment is similar between age ranges. There was a difference in outcome between the sexes in adults: 296 females treated, success rate 71.3%; 159 males treated, success rate 58.5%. Two patients (0.4%) had prolonged aggravation of their presenting complaints apparently attributable to homeopathic treatment.