Homeopatia

BMC Public Health

BioMed Central

Open Access

Research article

Homeopathic medical practice: Long-term results of a cohort study with 3981 patients
Claudia M Witt*1, Rainer Lüdtke2, Roland Baur1 and Stefan N Willich1
Address: 1Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics, Charité University Medical Center, D-10098 Berlin, Germany and
2Karl und Veronica Carstens Foundation, Am Deimelsberg 36, D-45276 Essen, Germany
Email: Claudia M Witt* - [e-mail]; Rainer Lüdtke - [e-mail]; Roland Baur - [e-mail];
Stefan N Willich - [e-mail]
* Corresponding author

Published: 03 November 2005
BMC Public Health 2005, 5:115

doi:10.1186/1471-2458-5-115

Received: 09 May 2005
Accepted: 03 November 2005

This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/5/115
© 2005 Witt et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract
Background: On the range of diagnoses, course of treatment, and long-term outcome in patients who chose to receive homeopathic medical treatment very little is known. We investigated homeopathic practice in an industrialized country under everyday conditions.
Methods: In a prospective, multicentre cohort study with 103 primary care practices with additional specialisation in homeopathy in Germany and Switzerland, data from all patients (age >1 year) consulting the physician for the first time were observed. The main outcome measures were:
Patient and physician assessments (numeric rating scales from 0 to 10) and quality of life at baseline, and after 3, 12, and 24 months.
Results: A total of 3,981 patients were studied including 2,851 adults (29% men, mean