Scientists are not ruling out the prospect that there is room for alternative, as well as conventional, approaches in modern-day medicine.

The study at Switzerland's University of Bern, published in The Lancet, throws more doubt on alternative medicines.

Alternative medicine is a booming business. Just this week the Prince of Wales, a passionate campaigner for integrated health, has commissioned a report into its benefits, reportedly in an attempt to persuade the Government to offer more of the many therapies on the NHS.

'No Convincing Evidence'

But researchers ran comparisons between 110 randomized placebo-controlled trials of homeopathy with 110 conventional-medicine trials.

They covered a range of illnesses and treatments, from respiratory infections to surgery to anesthesiology.

The study concluded: "When the analysis was restricted to large trials of high quality there was no convincing evidence that homeopathy was superior to placebo, whereas for conventional medicine an important effect remained."

Works if You Believe

Smaller trials of lower quality, in both groups, showed more beneficial treatment effects than larger and higher-quality trials, it also found.

This seems to show that homeopathy works if you really believe it, according to Professor Matthias Egger. "Our study powerfully illustrates the interplay and cumulative effect of different sources of bias."

But scientists are not ruling out the prospect that there is room for both approaches in modern-day medicine

(c) Birmingham Post; Birmingham (UK)
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