Gromova, J Homeop Ayurv Med 2013, 2:1 DOI: 10.4172/2167-1206.1000117 Homeopathy & Ayurvedic Medicine Review Article Open Access Homeopathic Treatments for Depression Elena Gromova* ASA College, New York, USA Abstract The paper presents the main facts from history of homeopathic medicinal approach, its fundamental assumptions and limitations and considers homeopathic substances with the potential to alleviate symptoms of major depression and anxiety comorbidities. Clinical aspects of homeopathic substances, such as their safety and efficacy, will be addressed using the available empirical data, and regulatory standards applicable to marketing and sale of these substances will be briefly addressed as well. The paper will also supply arguments in favor of and against the use of homeopathic substances to treat depression. Keywords: Homeopathy; Depression; St. John’s wort prior to selecting the appropriate therapeutic agent. Jonas et al. [2] provided an illustrative example of how this principle might apply History and Therapeutic Principles of Homeopathy to homeopathic practice: A patient with cold whose main symptoms The origination of homeopathic system of healing is attributed to include irritation of the eyes along with thin and clear nasal discharge the works of a German physician, Samuel Hahnemann, particularly would most likely be treated with onion extracts because these extracts his book titled Organon of the Healing Art [1]. According to historical elicit a similar pattern of response. Another patient with cold, however, data, Hahnemann was in the process of translating an English text might be treated with the purple cone flower, especially if he or she has into German language when he found out that Cinchona bark was an a yellow thick nasal discharge and has lost thirst. While both patients effective cure for malaria because it was bitter. Initially, he thought that in the above example have the same medical diagnosis, they are treated this statement was preposterous; however, after self-administration with a different substance because the total set of symptoms that they of a small dose of Cinchona bark, he discovered that the symptoms exhibit is different. The principle of holism presents a significant he developed were remarkable close to those of malaria. Based upon challenge for empirical investigations of homeopathy effectiveness this personal experience, Hahnemann put forward the so-called law of because objective evaluation of patient outcomes is complicated by similars, according to which therapeutic benefits of substance depend the lack of uniform prescribing standards. To summarize the above on how closely its effects match the symptoms of a disease (“similia points, homeopathy has no specific medicines for specific conditions similibus curentur”). Hahnemann reportedly administered common and two patients with the same diagnosis may receive a different course remedies to healthy volunteers to generate further empirical evidence of treatment [2]. of his principle of similars [2]. Shortly after homeopathy was established, it spreaded across the Being the cardinal principle of homeopathy, the law of similars globe, and its rapid advancement was in part due to the barbaric practices can nevertheless be perceived as absurd and nonsensical. Interestingly, utilized by the contemporary medical practitioners (e.g., bloodletting). a 16th century physician, Paracelsus, mentioned this principle in his At the turn of the century, US counted twenty homeopathic colleges, writings and successfully applied it to his patients. Pharmacology’s including Hahnemann Medical College. The response of allopathic Arndt-Schultz law explaining the biphasic response of drugs may be medicine to the rise of homeopathic system of treatment was rather a theoretical underpinning of the law of similars [3]. According to this harsh. American Medical Association was formed only a year after the law, the curve of the dose response reveals a reversal of physiological establishment of American Institute of Homeopathy, and one of the effects occurring at a certain dosage. Repeated experiments with objectives of AMA was to suppress the proliferation of quackery and different substances demonstrated that small doses of these substances placebos, included in which was homeopathy. Of interest, during the elicit the reaction that is opposite to the one introduced by larger doses cholera epidemic of 1854, homeopathic-oriented hospitals had lower of the same substance. mortality rates compared to allopathic institutions [2]. This and other similar events may help understand how the knowledge accumulated Another tenet of homeopathy holds that remedies remain by homeopaths was transferred to the allopathic care. Allopaths biologically active if they are diluted in a series (usually, 1:10 or 1:100 reportedly borrowed nitroglycerin from homeopaths, and the latter ratio) and shaken between each dilution [2]. Hahnemann himself is adopted such orthodox treatments as diphtheria antitoxin. said to have claimed that in the process of shaking, or “potenization” of a substance, “vital” or “spirit-like” nature of the substance was In the post-WWII period, doctors began to dominate healthcare extracted. The limit of molecular dilution (the Avogadro’s law) was not discovered until later years of Hahnemann’s life, however when this discovery became widely known, homeopaths began to face the *Corresponding author: Elena Gromova, PhD, ASA College, 47 W 34th st, threat of having their system of healing pronounced unscientific. To Room 531, New York, NY 10016, USA, Tel: (212) 672 6450 ext 1409; E-mail: [email protected] this date, the principle of minimum doses and succussion (vigorous shaking) remains the most controversial aspect of homeopathy and not Received November 20, 2012; Accepted December 18, 2012; Published December 21, 2012 surprisingly the most common point of its criticism. Another legacy of Hahnemann’s work is the principle of holism and the totality of Citation: Gromova E (2013) Homeopathic Treatments for Depression. J Homeop Ayurv Med 2:117. doi:10.4172/2167-1206.1000117 symptoms. According to this principle, remedies are effective when they are selected on the total characteristic set of symptoms rather Copyright: © 2012 Gromova E. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted than just on the symptoms of a disease. This implies that the totality use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and of symptoms and behaviors that a patient exhibits must be considered source are credited. J Homeop Ayurv Med Volume 2 • Issue 1 • 1000117 ISSN: 2167-1206, an open access journal Citation: Gromova E (2013) Homeopathic Treatments for Depression. J Homeop Ayurv Med 2:117. doi:10.4172/2167-1206.1000117 Page 2 of 6 market, including the market of homeopathic products and services, Critics of homeopathic approach have argued that there is no and in the ensuing decades the growth of scientific medicine plausible theory explaining how homeopathy could work, along contributed to the decline in demand for homeopathy. Beginning with with lacking empirical evidence that homeopathy is effective [6]. 1970s, however, social criticism of conventional medicine revealed The dilutions that Hahnemann and modern homeopaths employ such important issues as its cost, iatrogenic diseases, and lack of in treatment are very extreme: An alcohol tincture of the original humanity, and taken together these factors facilitated reintroduction of substance, for instance, could be diluted in a ratio of 1:100 and then homeopathy to healthcare market [4]. vigorously shaken, the resulting solution is diluted and shaken again, and the process is repeated several times. As a result of the repeated Presently, there are significant differences in the demographic dilutions, the remedy is statistically unlikely to contain the molecules characteristics of the clients seen by allopaths and homeopaths. of the original substance, as it could be easily inferred from the Jonas et al. noted that patients seen by homeopathic physicians tend atomic weights and Avogadro’s number. Sehon and Stanley argued to be more affluent and younger than the patients seen by allopathic that homeopathic remedies are to the best of current knowledge of (or conventional) physicians. It is also estimated that conventional chemistry indistinguishable from the water in which they are diluted, medical doctors spend significantly less time with their patients than and different remedies are therefore chemically indistinguishable from homeopathic physicians (12 vs. 30 minutes). Taken together, these one another [6]. differences may account for the substantial proportion of variability in patient outcomes which complicates head-to-head comparisons of Another point of criticism of Hahnemann’s system is the law of efficacy of homeopathic versus allopathic approach even further [2]. similars, and specifically, the fact that it had never been applied to regular medicines. Homeopaths typically respond to this question by Regulatory Standards Applicable to Homeopathic referring to medical vaccines and emphasizing that in large quantities Medicines both substances cause a disease, while minute quantities elicit a positive effect. Sehon and Stanley, however, claimed that this analogy is not very In the majority of developed countries, medicines are regulated on apt and raises further questions, such as, “Why do vaccines become