A Review of Use of Enantiomers in Homeopathy
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Abstracts - Poster Presentations 86 disease; and need for catecholamines. (Frass, Dielacher et Background: Public desire for complementary medicine al. 2005) Subsequently, KB was approved for use at two ru- in Switzerland is highly evident with over two thirds of the ral community hospital affiliates of a major U.S. medical population voting in a national referendum in May 2009 in center. A review of the cases treated was undertaken to favour of complementary medicine being included in the gain a better understanding of the use of KB in the commu- Swiss constitution. Education for complementary medicine nity hospital setting. practitioners in Switzerland is undertaken in the private Methods: The local institutional review board approved sector with wide variation in pedagogical approaches and onsite review of charts in the electronic medical record quality assurance procedures. However, the public interest (EMR). Sixteen patients for whom KB had been ordered in complementary medicine necessitates an assurance of from September 2009 to March 2011were identified by public safety and professionalism of service. the inpatient pharmacy director in a search of the dispensing Objectives: This study sought to investigate how the col- database. EMRs were reviewed to note diagnoses, days on lege defines its aims and objectives for homeopathy training MV prior and after introduction of KB, ventilator settings, and to what extent those objectives are realised in practice. and sputum description. The pulmonary physician who Methods: The study was conducted between September had obtained approval for use of the drug also supplied brief 2009 and August 2010. It utilised a qualitative, single case comments for some patients, which had been prepared for study approach to examine a college offering part time pro- the Pharmacy & Therapeutics Committee. fessional education and training for practitioners in com- Results: The inpatient pharmacy obtained KB in blue plementary medicine in Switzerland. Grounded Theory plastic tubes containing 38 mm medicated lactose pellets was used as a methodological framework for collecting (Boiron USA, Newtown Square, PA) from a local commu- and analysing the data. nity pharmacy. ICU nurses administered five pellets sub- Results: The results of this study appear to empirically lingually bid. The requisition for KB most often came confirm previous findings which, for quality Professional from the pulmonary consultant; although he was not the Education and Training, have emphasized the importance primary physician in any case. Timing of KB was inconsis- of aligning a teaching programme with the aims and objec- tent; in several cases it seemed a last-ditch effort after many tives of an education: Coherence, effective and transparent days of intubation, and the patient succumbed. No patient communication: Transparency, and taking into account the would have met inclusion criteria for the Vienna study Student-interest. and all had multiple co-morbidities; yet consistent sputum Conclusions: Consideration of the emergent themes of descriptions suggest that the concept of “genus epidemi- this study has resulted in formulation of a tentative hypoth- cus” may be applied to some medical conditions beyond esis, that three opposing pairs of core categories (or dimen- the epidemic situation. Physician observations were gener- sions of quality): ally favorable. Separateness e Coherence, Conclusions: Methodology for assessing generalizable Opaqueness e Transparency, and “real-world” use of homeopathic medicines is critically Self-Interest (of the course provider or institution) e Stu- needed. Utilizing propensity scores and linear regression dent-interest, modeling may provide one such method for future prag- are able to characterise quality in Professional Education matic clinical trials. and Training. Can quality in Professional A review of use of enantiomers in Education and Training be homeopathy characterised by three opposing Michael Kuzeff pairs of core categories? Findings National Institute of Integrative Medicine, 759 Burwood from a qualitative, single case Road, Hawthorn East, Melbourne, Victoria 3123, Australia study of the education quality at a E-mail: [email protected] (M. Kuzeff) small private complementary Many molecules in nature have geometry, which enables them to exist as non-superimposable mirror images, or en- medicine college in Switzerland antiomers. Modulation of toxicity of such molecules pro- Ulrike Kessler1,* and Kate Chatfield2 vides possibility for therapeutics, since they target multiple points in biochemical pathways. It was hypothe- 1Leimenstrasse 42, 4051 Basel, Switzerland sized that toxicity of a chemical agent, could be counter- 2School of Health, University of Central Lancashire, acted by a homeopathic preparation of the enantiomer of Preston, United Kingdom the chemical agent (Patents applied for: PCT/AU2003/ 000219-PCT/**AU2008/001611). *Corresponding author. A diverse body of data, including controlled laboratory E-mail: [email protected] (K. Chatfield) studies using several species and compounds, supports Homeopathy Abstracts - Poster Presentations 87 the conclusion that toxicity of optical isomers may be in- The first phase was initiated with the selection of suc- hibited by homeopathic enantiomer preparations. These cessful cases from highly skilled expert homeopaths. Suc- data were obtained with minimal or no pre-testing to deter- cessful cases are cases where follow ups clearly indicate mine optimal test solutions suggestive of a robust hypoth- that the remedy acted curatively. After repertorisation of esis. Inhibition of the excitotoxic neurotransmitter L- the cases an assessment process was performed on how Glutamic acid with homeopathic preparations of D-Gluta- accurately the proposed, software-generated remedies, mic acid, indicates the latter may be of use for amelioration successfully matched the human-prescribed remedies. of symptoms of disturbances of mood. This is an example The second phase was about reviewing cases solved by of hypothesis driven research using homeopathy. Potency homeopaths with the support of VithoulkasCompass expert chords seem more stable in action than simplexes. system. After the initial input and the analysis of symp- The abstract presentation will touch on recent work sum- toms, a first set of proposed remedies was provided by marized in the review article at http://www.hindawi.com/ the system. If the case was clear, the homeopath proceeded isrn/toxicology/2012/575292/, and also point to some of with the appropriate prescription. If the case was not clear, the numerous scenarios where it may be possible and rele- the differential analysis functions of the software were uti- vant to investigate action of enantiomers in homeopathy. lized in order to suggest symptoms not revealed by the pa- tient and to finally single out the correct remedy. Along these lines, the contribution of the differential analysis Assessment of a new decision function was also effectively assessed. A team of scientists guided by Prof. Vithoulkas of the support expert system in IACH and the Aegean University evaluated the results of headaches cases the system and the curative effect of the consequent admin- istered remedies. * Lilas Theodoros and Tapakis Eleftherios Statistical analysis demonstrates that VithoulkasCom- VithoulkasCompass.com, Athens, Greece pass expert system, has a very high accuracy in proposing appropriate remedies for treating patients suffering from *Corresponding author. chronic headaches, as well as showing high efficiency on E-mail: [email protected] (L. Theodoros) individually prescribed homeopathic remedies, in many Continuous advancements in Information and Commu- headache cases. nication Technologies along with the consequent massive adoption of Web services provide today, exciting and effec- tive decision support tools for many professions. The vital Homeopathic research in need for high levels of accuracy and effectiveness in ho- palliative care (PC) - A review of meopathic prescribing was the driving force behind the development of a new online expert system. modern studies concerning the VithoulkasCompass is a web-based decision support field of PC tool, designed to aid the homeopathic practitioner in finding the individual correct remedy, by inputting relevant Isidre Lara i Llobet symptoms. Calibration and refinement of the algorithms ~ and mechanisms that lead to the proposal of the correct Federacion Espanola de Medicos Homeopatas (FEMH), Spain remedy by the expert system are the key areas of contin- E-mail: [email protected] (I.L. i Llobet) uous, on-going research, always confirming new develop- Introduction: Homeopathy, with a tradition of use ments against a very large number of real world cases without discontinuity in nearly all over the world longer from the archives of the International Academy of Clas- than 200 years, stands as one of the complementary and sical Homeopathy (IACH). alternative medicines (CAM) that could offer effective alter- A statistical assessment of VithoulkasCompass expert natives of treatment in palliative care, not yet fully explored system platform has been performed on chronic headache or investigated. Observational studies support its use in the cases. The methodology included two phases. field of PC to reduce anxiety, depression, and to improve 1. It analysed the performance of the software on cases quality of life, also to reduce hot flashes and breathlessness. already solved by homeopathy