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Rheumatology Advance Access originally published online on January 20, 2004
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Rheumatology 2004; 43: 577-582
Rheumatology Vol. 43 No. 5 (c) British Society for Rheumatology 2004; all rights reserved

Clinical

Improved clinical status in fibromyalgia patients treated with individualized homeopathic remedies versus placebo

I. R. Bell1,2,3,4,6,8, D. A. Lewis, II9, A. J. Brooks3, G. E. Schwartz3,5,6, S. E. Lewis9, B. T. Walsh4 and C. M. Baldwin3,4,7,8

1Program in Integrative Medicine, 2Departments of Psychiatry, 3Psychology, 4Medicine, 5Neurology, 6Surgery, the 7Arizona Respiratory Center and the 8Mel and Enid Zuckerman Arizona College of Public Health at the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, and 9Saybrook Graduate School and Research Institute, San Francisco, California, USA.

Correspondence to: I. R. Bell, Program in Integrative Medicine, The University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, 1249 N. Mountain Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA. E-mail: IBELL{at}U.ARIZONA.EDU

Objective. To assess the efficacy of individualized classical homeopathy in the treatment of fibromyalgia.

Methods. This study was a double-blind, randomized, parallel-group, placebo-controlled trial of homeopathy. Community-recruited persons (N = 62) with physician-confirmed fibromyalgia (mean age 49 yr, S.D. 10 yr, 94% women) were treated in a homeopathic private practice setting. Participants were randomized to receive oral daily liquid LM (1/50 000) potencies with an individually chosen homeopathic remedy or an indistinguishable placebo. Homeopathic visits involved joint interviews and concurrence on remedy selection by two experienced homeopaths, at baseline, 2 months and 4 months (prior to a subsequent optional crossover phase of the study which is reported elsewhere). Tender point count and tender point pain on examination by a medical assessor uninvolved in providing care, self-rating scales on fibromyalgia-related quality of life, pain, mood and global health at baseline and 3 months, were the primary clinical outcome measures for this report.

Results. Fifty-three people completed the treatment protocol. Participants on active treatment showed significantly greater improvements in tender point count and tender point pain, quality of life, global health and a trend toward less depression compared with those on placebo.

Conclusions. This study replicates and extends a previous 1-month placebo-controlled crossover study in fibromyalgia that pre-screened for only one homeopathic remedy. Using a broad selection of remedies and the flexible LM dose (1/50 000 dilution factor) series, the present study demonstrated that individualized homeopathy is significantly better than placebo in lessening tender point pain and improving the quality of life and global health of persons with fibromyalgia.

KEY WORDS: Fibromyalgia, Homeopathy, Chronic pain, Global health.


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