Integrative Medicine Reports (Jul 2023)
Homeopathic Treatment of COVID-19 Patients: Findings of the Clificol International Clinical Case Registry
Abstract
Introduction: The Clificol? COVID-19 Support Project is an innovative international clinical case registry project that aimed at collecting experiences with the homeopathic treatment of COVID-19 patients. This paper describes and compares the reported findings from the six main contributing countries. Materials and Methods: Observational clinical case registry study of patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19. Participating homeopaths could freely enter symptoms that informed the remedy prescription. In addition, in China, use was made of a symptom questionnaire. The analyses were primarily descriptive. Results: One thousand two hundred and twenty-seven cases, as available by the October 31, 2022, were used for the analyses. In total, 1606 prescriptions were analyzed, 977 of which contained data on the symptoms used in the remedy selection process. Outcome data on 1310 prescriptions were available. Overall, Bryonia alba was the most commonly prescribed remedy, and this was particularly evident in India, Spain, and Switzerland. Also, the prevalence of the 10 most commonly used rubrics in patients' prescriptions varied significantly between countries. The highest percentage of rapid recovery (66%) was observed in those patients who had their symptoms for >30 days before the initiation of homeopathic treatment. Conclusions: Significant experience has been obtained with the homeopathic treatment of COVID-19 patients. We observed a high level of variability between countries. Future statistical analyses of aggregated clinical case data will benefit from reducing unwanted variability as well as bias. This will further unlock the potential contribution of the Clificol project to improving homeopathy.
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