The use of homeopathy in veterinary medicine: a systematic review

Abstract

Although its use remains controversial, homeopathy has been proposed as an integrative approach alongside conventional medicine. This systematic review aimed to validate the use of homeopathy in veterinary using randomized controlled trials as the gold standard methodology. We performed a broad bibliographic search on the use of homeopathy in veterinary medicine published between 2016 and 2023, following the prerequisites and protocol established by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) and Cochrane Training. All searched studies were excluded if they did not fit the chosen methodology. Studies were identified based on their data and passed through a selection process. The selected studies were then assessed for risk of bias. The initial database search yielded 161 documents. Of these, 126 studies were excluded because they were not within the scope of the review, either by title or abstract. In total, 35 articles remained and underwent a data extraction process followed by study selection. Due to its methodologies, many studies with high sampling densities, encompassing numerous species and diseases, were not included in this review. Eight articles met the requirements of the present study. The articles predominantly focused on diseases, which may be attributed to the fact that treating such diseases makes it easier to validate the use of homeopathics in veterinary medicine, rather than solely employing it for prevention, as observed in the majority of the outcomes. Only four studies exhibited an overall low risk of bias. There is a scant number of robust evidence for veterinary homeopathy. With that, further randomized controlled trials involving the same species are warranted to valitade its use; the limited number of articles did not allow us to conduct a meta-analysis. This systematic review illustrates the need for a better description of the methodologies used in these studies.