Year: 2005
Type: dissertation
Study design: Clinical Trial
Abstract: The aim of this thesis is to explore why parents bring their children to homeopaths and to investigate the effect of homeopathic treatment for prevention of upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) in children. The reason for doing studies on this is that there has been a nearly threefold increase in the proportion of children among patients visiting Norwegian homeopaths. This raised the question of why it is so. Furthermore, recurrent respiratory complaints are a main reason why child patients consult homeopaths. This raised the question of the effect of homeopathic treatment in this patient group, because there is very little research on this. The thesis builds on four different studies conducted between August 2002 and June 2004.\n\nParents of nine children that recently had been to a homeopath for the first time were interviewed to explore why parents take their children to homeopaths. All parents had been to a medical doctor before consulting the homeopath. It was the experiences with conventional medical treatment that led the parents to look for alternatives. The reasons were that 1) the parents did not want to give the medication prescribed by the doctor, 2) they wanted treatment while waiting for a problem to be assessed, 3) they did not want to continue to use the prescribed medication, 4) they stopped taking conventional medication due to side effects or 5) they were not offered any treatment by the medical doctor. The parents would consult a medical doctor if they felt insecure about the health conditions of the child and would visit a homeopath when they felt that the situation was clarified. There are parents who take their child to homeopaths despite not understanding or having belief in whether ultramolecular homeopathic medicines can have effects.\n\nOne hundred and sixty-one children who had been diagnosed with an URTI by a medical doctor were recruited to participate in a trial on the effect of treatment by homeopaths for prevention of URTI in children. The children were randomly allocated to two groups. One group received an appointment immediately with one of five homeopaths who treated the patients as they do in their everyday practice. The other group (control) got such treatment after three months. The occurrence of URTI judged by the parents were significantly lower among those treated immediately by homeopaths (median 8 days in three months) compared to the control group who used self-selected conventional health care (median 13 days) (p=0.006).\n\nHomeopathic medicines are frequently used for self-treatment (over the counter-OTC). It is not known if the choice of the patient is the same, as a homeopath would have prescribed. A study was therefore conducted to explore if there can be developed indications for homeopathic medicines that facilitate that parents can chose the same medicine as a homeopath would prescribe for children with URTI. Firstly, data from a survey was used to find three medicines Calcarea carb, Pulsatilla and Sulphur that accounted for 60% of all prescription made by Norwegian homeopaths for children with URTI. Simplified constitutional indications for these medicines were developed and tested by comparing the choices of 70 parents with the prescription of eleven homeopaths. The parents were able to choose the same homeopathic medicine as homeopaths prescribed for 55% of the children.\n\nTwo hundred and fifty-nine children who had been diagnosed with an URTI by a medical doctor were recruited to participate in a trial on the effect of one of three self-selected ultramolecular homeopathic medicines for prevention of URTI in children. The indications developed were used. The children was randomly allocated to receive either ultramolecular homeopathic medicine (C-30) or placebo. There was no difference in the occurrence of URTI judged by the parents among getting ultramolecular homeopathic medicine compared to those getting placebo (median 9 days in three months for both groups) (p=0.531).
Source: BIBSYS Brage (BIBSYS (Norway))
Author: Aslak Steinsbekk
Language: English
Subfield: Complementary and alternative medicine
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W191536398