Sufferers of rheumatoid arthritis who visited a homeopathic doctor experienced significant reductions in pain, inflammation and other key markers of the disease, the research shows.
Yet it made no difference whether the solution they received was a genuine homeopathic tincture prescribed to treat rheumatism, or a placebo.
The research, published today in the journal Rheumatology compared different groups of patients, who were already being given conventional medication for the disease.
Those who had a series of five consultations with a homeopathic doctor experienced “significant clinical benefits,” - whether the tincture they received was a specially prepared “homeopathic” remedy used to treat rheumatism, or a placebo.
Patients given exactly the same remedies without the consultations did not gain the improvements.
The study’s authors said the findings suggested that simply “talking and listening” to patients could dramatically assist their health.
Prof George Lewith, Professor of Health Research from Southampton University, said: “This research asked the question: 'Is homeopathy about the talking, or is it about the medicine?’ We found it was about the talking, and indeed about the listening.”
Homeopathy is based on a theory that substances which cause symptoms in a healthy person can, when vastly diluted, cure the same problems in a sick person. Proponents say the resulting “remedy” retains a “memory” of the original ingredient – a concept dismissed by scientists.
While the study suggested the remedies itself had no benefit, conventional medics should learn from the way homeopaths treated their patients, said Prof Lewith, a reader in the University’s Complementary Medicine Research Unit
“When you place the patient at the heart of the consultation you get a powerful effect. I think there are a lot of lesssons here for conventional medics about the need for patient-centred care, instead of treating people as walking diseases.”
Read more at The Telegraph
Those who had a series of five consultations with a homeopathic doctor experienced “significant clinical benefits,” - whether the tincture they received was a specially prepared “homeopathic” remedy used to treat rheumatism, or a placebo.
Patients given exactly the same remedies without the consultations did not gain the improvements.
The study’s authors said the findings suggested that simply “talking and listening” to patients could dramatically assist their health.
Prof George Lewith, Professor of Health Research from Southampton University, said: “This research asked the question: 'Is homeopathy about the talking, or is it about the medicine?’ We found it was about the talking, and indeed about the listening.”
Homeopathy is based on a theory that substances which cause symptoms in a healthy person can, when vastly diluted, cure the same problems in a sick person. Proponents say the resulting “remedy” retains a “memory” of the original ingredient – a concept dismissed by scientists.
While the study suggested the remedies itself had no benefit, conventional medics should learn from the way homeopaths treated their patients, said Prof Lewith, a reader in the University’s Complementary Medicine Research Unit
“When you place the patient at the heart of the consultation you get a powerful effect. I think there are a lot of lesssons here for conventional medics about the need for patient-centred care, instead of treating people as walking diseases.”
Read more at The Telegraph
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