OUTCOME AND PROCESS ASSESSMENT, HAY FEVER, ASTHMA

Homoeopathy is widely used in the treatment of respiratory tract diseases. Close cooperation between homoeopathic practitioners and pulmonologists should be further increased in order to check the success of the treatment by means of pulmonary function tests. Only six controlled studies could be found in this field. One controlled study shows the superiority of a homoeopathic complex remedy over placebo in treating chronic cough. Four studies deal with a homoeopathic treatment of pollinosis, three of them show a significant efficiency of homoeopathically prepared Galphimia glauca and of a highly potentised pollen preparation. One double-blind randomised trial shows the efficiency of highly potentised antigene in treating atopic asthma. The studies published so far show only little relevance to the daily practice where a highly individualized remedy is usually used in the treatment of chronic diseases. A controlled multicentric study in cooperation between homoeopathic practictioners and pulmonologic clinics using individual prescription of the remedy is in preparation.

The author discusses the pathogenesis of asthma as a primary inflammatory disease and relates how this new understanding of asthma may offer additional insights to the homoeopathic practitioner in the selection of the simillimum. This could open up prescribing in allowing remedies known to be useful in inflammatory conditions to be considered and a better understanding of other remedies could be gained through their ability to treat inflammation in asthma, for example Ipecacuanha and Cuprum metallicum. Two cases are then presented, the first relating to a thirty-two year old man complaining of tightness of the chest and pain on deep breathing during exertion. Calcarea carbonica 1M was prescribed after case analysis and repertorization and he improved greatly. The second case is that of a seventy-two year old female who presents with shortness of breath and wheezing cough on exertion which had begun seven years earlier following pneumonia. Arsenicum iodatum 6X once a day was prescribed and after two months the patient was able to reduce her dose of Solumedrol - an improvement in the face of multiple allopathic medications which usually prove to be obstacles to cure to homoeopathic treatment.