Positive Health Online

Abstract

BELL and colleagues, Program ion Integrative Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85724-5153, USA, ibell@u.arizona.edu, have studied homeopathic practitioner views of changes in patients using constitutional treatment for chronic disease.

Background

The aim of the study was to identify areas that classical homeopaths would want to see evaluated in patient self-report questionnaires sensitive to change during constitutional treatment.

Methodology

At two classical homeopathy meetings held in the USA, homeopathic practitioners completed an open-ended, written questionnaire. This was analyzed using inductive content analysis.

Results

The categories that 38 homeopaths identified as relevant for the evaluation of changes in patients' wellbeing included emotions; mental states; specific physical functions; general physical changes; perception of self; relationships; spirituality; lifestyle; energy; dream content and tone; wellbeing; perceptions by others; life relationships; a sense of freedom or feeling less stuck; sleep; coping; ability to adapt; creativity; and recall of past experiences.

Conclusion

The findings are consistent with the systemic orientation of classical homeopathic philosophy to evaluate and treat the patient as a whole person. They support the need for development of new, multidimensional outcome measures for clinical research in homeopathy that go beyond the disease-specific and health-related quality of life scales available in conventional medical research.

References

Bell IR, Koithan M, Gorman MM, Baldwin CM. Homeopathic practitioner views of changes in patients undergoing constitutional treatment for chronic disease. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 9 (1): 39-50, Feb 2003.