Aiming for a homeopathic research juggernaut

Effects of homeopathic medicine can be dramatic, and homeopathy is a system of medicine par excellence that lends itself to the double-blind randomized controlled trial. Since this is the clinical study design that provides the highest internal validity, the question arises why the literature is not awash with high quality meta-analyses reporting on these effects. The talk will give examples of homeopathic studies that give a clue as to why capturing and reporting effects of homeopathy has been problematic. It will also report on how the current simillimum study in India is circumventing these issues in clinical studies and provides a springboard to perform multiple definitive phase 3 RCTs in homeopathy. This is incorporated almost seamlessly into daily homeopathic practice, with minimal disruption to the practice of practitioner participants. Time permitting, the talk will give a brief overview of work done in Bulgaria, Hungary and Scotland relating to the use of potentized optical isomers or ‘mirror image’ molecules, that are ubiquitous in nature, and provide a robust platform for investigating potency effects.