Clinical trials of homoeopathy in osteoarthritis: A systematic review

Abstract

Introduction Homoeopathy seems scientifically implausible and is the most con-troversial form of complementary and alternative medicine therapies. This review aims to summarise the treatment effects of homoeopathy in osteoarthritis. Materials and methods Relevant studies from 1980 to 2013 were identified by a comprehensive literature search in electronic data-bases, reference list of relevant papers and contacts with experts. Clinical tri-als comparing homoeopathic treat-ment strategy with controls (placebo or conventional therapies) were eli-gible. Information on patients, inter-ventions and comparators, outcomes, study designs and results was ex-tracted in a standardised manner, and quality was assessed using the Jadad scoring and Cochrane bias minimi-sation criteria. Trials providing suf-ficient data were summarised and tabulated systematically. Results A total of eight controlled clinical trials involving 1444 patients were included in the analysis. None of the studies used individualised homoe-opathy, rather tried 'complex homoe-opathy' and 'combination formulae'. Methodological quality of the trials was variable.