Homeopathic Individualized Q-Potencies versus Fluoxetine for Moderate to Severe Depression: Double-Blind, Randomized Non-Inferiority Trial.

Homeopathy is a complementary and integrative medicine used in depression, The aim of this study is to investigate the non-inferiority and tolerability of individualized homeopathic medicines [Quinquagintamillesmial (Q-potencies)] in acute depression, using fluoxetine as active control. Ninety-one outpatients with moderate to severe depression were assigned to receive an individualized homeopathic medicine or fluoxetine 20 mg day(-1) (up to 40 mg day(-1)) in a prospective, randomized, double-blind double-dummy 8-week, single-center trial. Primary efficacy measure was the analysis of the mean change in the Montgomery & Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) depression scores, using a non-inferiority test with margin of 1.45. Secondary efficacy outcomes were response and remission rates. Tolerability was assessed with the side effect rating scale of the Scandinavian Society of Psychopharmacology. Mean MADRS scores differences were not significant at the 4th (P = .654) and 8th weeks (P = .965) of treatment. Non-inferiority of homeopathy was indicated because the upper limit of the confidence interval (CI) for mean difference in MADRS change was less than the non-inferiority margin: mean differences (homeopathy-fluoxetine) were -3.04 (95% CI -6.95, 0.86) and -2.4 (95% CI -6.05, 0.77) at 4th and 8th week, respectively. There were no significant differences between the percentages of response or remission rates in both groups. Tolerability: there were no significant differences between the side effects rates, although a higher percentage of patients treated with fluoxetine reported troublesome side effects and there was a trend toward greater treatment interruption for adverse effects in the fluoxetine group. This study illustrates the feasibility of randomized controlled double-blind trials of homeopathy in depression and indicates the non-inferiority of individualized homeopathic Q-potencies as compared to fluoxetine in acute treatment of outpatients with moderate to severe depression.

Homeopathic Individualized Q-potencies versus Fluoxetine for Moderate to Severe Depression: Double-blind, Randomized Non-inferiority Trial

Homeopathy is a complementary and integrative medicine used in depression, The aim of this study is to investigate the non-inferiority and tolerability of individualized homeopathic medicines [Quinquagintamillesmial (Q-potencies)] in acute depression, using fluoxetine as active control. Ninety-one outpatients with moderate to severe depression were assigned to receive an individualized homeopathic medicine or fluoxetine 20 mg day(-1) (up to 40 mg day(-1)) in a prospective, randomized, double-blind double-dummy 8-week, single-center trial. Primary efficacy measure was the analysis of the mean change in the Montgomery & Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) depression scores, using a non-inferiority test with margin of 1.45. Secondary efficacy outcomes were response and remission rates [...] Non-inferiority of homeopathy was indicated because the upper limit of the confidence interval (CI) for mean difference in MADRS change was less than the non-inferiority margin: mean differences (homeopathy-fluoxetine) were -3.04 (95% CI -6.95, 0.86) and -2.4 (95% CI -6.05, 0.77) at 4th and 8th week, respectively. There were no significant differences between the percentages of response or remission rates in both groups. Tolerability: there were no significant differences between the side effects rates, although a higher percentage of patients treated with fluoxetine reported troublesome side effects and there was a trend toward greater treatment interruption for adverse effects in the fluoxetine group. This study illustrates the feasibility of randomized controlled double-blind trials of homeopathy in depression and indicates the non-inferiority of individualized homeopathic Q-potencies as compared to fluoxetine in acute treatment of outpatients with moderate to severe depression.(AU)

Hahnemann's experiments with 50 millesimal potencies: a further review of his casebooks.

BACKGROUND: A review of Hahnemann's clinical records at the Institute for History of Medicine of the Robert Bosch Foundation in Stuttgart shows that until the end of his life, Hahnemann continued to refine his clinical method, based on clinical cases. His "most perfected method" motivated him to write the sixth edition of the The Organon of the Healing Art, proposing solutions controlling the side effects he observed with repeated doses of homeopathic medicines. Unfortunately, this was published many years posthumously. The sixth edition of The Organon introduced the fifty-millesimal scale. OBJECTIVES: To identify the clinical cases treated with fifty-millesimal potencies and analyze Hahnemann's use of them. RESULTS: 1836 prescriptions of fifty-millesimal potencies were found, between 1837 and 1843 in three phases: initially sporadic; later compared regularly to centesimal dynamizations; and finally systematically. Thirty five medicines were identified in fifty-millesimal prescriptions, seven in potencies higher than 10 and only 3 (Sulphur, Mercurius solubilis and Rhus toxicodendron) used in the 30th degree. This accords with Haehl's information about the remedies in Hahnemann's case of fifty-millesimal potencies. CONCLUSIONS: Hahnemann probably decided to write the sixth edition, in 1840, to incorporate his latest experience with the repetition of potentized doses and periodically modified potencies. He must have revised it after February 1842 to include his latest findings with fifty-millesimal potencies in ascending degrees. Hahnemann's conception about the superiority of the fifty-millesimal in comparison with the centesimal dynamization was based on a significant number of experiments with the two scales.