Homeopathic treatment of patients with chronic sinusitis: A prospective observational study with 8 years follow-up
BACKGROUND: An evaluation of homeopathic treatment and the outcomes in patients suffering from sinusitis for ≥12 weeks in a usual care situation. METHODS: Subgroup analysis including all patients with chronic sinusitis (ICD-9: 473.9; ≥12 weeks duration) of a large prospective multicentre observation...
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Lenguaje: | English |
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BioMed Central
2009
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2724430/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19635154 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6815-9-7 |
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author | Witt, Claudia M Lüdtke, Rainer Willich, Stefan N |
author_facet | Witt, Claudia M Lüdtke, Rainer Willich, Stefan N |
author_sort | Witt, Claudia M |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: An evaluation of homeopathic treatment and the outcomes in patients suffering from sinusitis for ≥12 weeks in a usual care situation. METHODS: Subgroup analysis including all patients with chronic sinusitis (ICD-9: 473.9; ≥12 weeks duration) of a large prospective multicentre observational study population. Consecutive patients presenting for homeopathic treatment were followed-up for 2 years, and complaint severity, health-related quality of life (QoL), and medication use were regularly recorded. We also present here patient-reported health status 8 years post initial treatment. RESULTS: The study included 134 adults (mean age 39.8 ± 10.4 years, 76.1% women), treated by 62 physicians. Patients had suffered from chronic sinusitis for 10.7 ± 9.8 years. Almost all patients (97.0%) had previously been treated with conventional medicine. For sinusitis, effect size (effect divided by standard deviation at baseline) of complaint severity was 1.58 (95% CI 1.77; 1.40), 2.15 (2.38; 1.92), and 2.43 (2.68; 2.18) at 3, 12, and 24 months respectively. QoL improved accordingly, with SF-36 changes in physical component score 0.27 (0.15; 0.39), 0.35 (0.19; 0.52), 0.44 (0.23; 0.65) and mental component score 0.66 (0.49; 0.84), 0.71 (0.50; 0.92), 0.65 (0.39; 0.92), 0.74 (0.49; 1.00) at these points. The effects were still present after 8 years with SF-36 physical component score 0.38 (0.10; 0.65) and mental component score 0.74 (0.49; 1.00). CONCLUSION: This observational study showed relevant improvements that persisted for 8 years in patients seeking homeopathic treatment because of sinusitis. The extent to which the observed effects are due to the life-style regulation and placebo or context effects associated with the treatment needs clarification in future explanatory studies. |
format | Text |
id | pubmed-2724430 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2009 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-27244302009-08-11 Homeopathic treatment of patients with chronic sinusitis: A prospective observational study with 8 years follow-up Witt, Claudia M Lüdtke, Rainer Willich, Stefan N BMC Ear Nose Throat Disord Research Article BACKGROUND: An evaluation of homeopathic treatment and the outcomes in patients suffering from sinusitis for ≥12 weeks in a usual care situation. METHODS: Subgroup analysis including all patients with chronic sinusitis (ICD-9: 473.9; ≥12 weeks duration) of a large prospective multicentre observational study population. Consecutive patients presenting for homeopathic treatment were followed-up for 2 years, and complaint severity, health-related quality of life (QoL), and medication use were regularly recorded. We also present here patient-reported health status 8 years post initial treatment. RESULTS: The study included 134 adults (mean age 39.8 ± 10.4 years, 76.1% women), treated by 62 physicians. Patients had suffered from chronic sinusitis for 10.7 ± 9.8 years. Almost all patients (97.0%) had previously been treated with conventional medicine. For sinusitis, effect size (effect divided by standard deviation at baseline) of complaint severity was 1.58 (95% CI 1.77; 1.40), 2.15 (2.38; 1.92), and 2.43 (2.68; 2.18) at 3, 12, and 24 months respectively. QoL improved accordingly, with SF-36 changes in physical component score 0.27 (0.15; 0.39), 0.35 (0.19; 0.52), 0.44 (0.23; 0.65) and mental component score 0.66 (0.49; 0.84), 0.71 (0.50; 0.92), 0.65 (0.39; 0.92), 0.74 (0.49; 1.00) at these points. The effects were still present after 8 years with SF-36 physical component score 0.38 (0.10; 0.65) and mental component score 0.74 (0.49; 1.00). CONCLUSION: This observational study showed relevant improvements that persisted for 8 years in patients seeking homeopathic treatment because of sinusitis. The extent to which the observed effects are due to the life-style regulation and placebo or context effects associated with the treatment needs clarification in future explanatory studies. BioMed Central 2009-07-27 /pmc/articles/PMC2724430/ /pubmed/19635154 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6815-9-7 Text en Copyright © 2009 Witt et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 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. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Witt, Claudia M Lüdtke, Rainer Willich, Stefan N Homeopathic treatment of patients with chronic sinusitis: A prospective observational study with 8 years follow-up |
title | Homeopathic treatment of patients with chronic sinusitis: A prospective observational study with 8 years follow-up |
title_full | Homeopathic treatment of patients with chronic sinusitis: A prospective observational study with 8 years follow-up |
title_fullStr | Homeopathic treatment of patients with chronic sinusitis: A prospective observational study with 8 years follow-up |
title_full_unstemmed | Homeopathic treatment of patients with chronic sinusitis: A prospective observational study with 8 years follow-up |
title_short | Homeopathic treatment of patients with chronic sinusitis: A prospective observational study with 8 years follow-up |
title_sort | homeopathic treatment of patients with chronic sinusitis: a prospective observational study with 8 years follow-up |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2724430/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19635154 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6815-9-7 |
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