title: Influence of adjunctive classical homeopathy on global health status and subjective wellbeing in cancer patients - A pragmatic randomized controlled trial.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The use of complementary and alternative medicine has increased over the past decade. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether homeopathy influenced global health status and subjective wellbeing when used as an adjunct to conventional cancer therapy.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this pragmatic randomized controlled trial, 410 patients, who were treated by standard anti-neoplastic therapy, were randomized to receive or not receive classical homeopathic adjunctive therapy in addition to standard therapy. The study took place at the Medical University Vienna, Department of Medicine I, Clinical Division of Oncology.
  
  
  METHODS
  The main outcome measures were global health status and subjective wellbeing as assessed by the patients. At each of three visits (one baseline, two follow-up visits), patients filled in two different questionnaires.
  
  
  RESULTS
  373 patients yielded at least one of three measurements. The improvement of global health status between visits 1 and 3 was significantly stronger in the homeopathy group by 7.7 (95% CI 2.3-13.0, p=0.005) when compared with the control group. A significant group difference was also observed with respect to subjective wellbeing by 14.7 (95% CI 8.5-21.0, p<0.001) in favor of the homeopathic as compared with the control group. Control patients showed a significant improvement only in subjective wellbeing between their first and third visits.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results suggest that the global health status and subjective wellbeing of cancer patients improve significantly when adjunct classical homeopathic treatment is administered in addition to conventional therapy.
authors.affiliation: Medical University of Vienna, Department of Medicine I, Clinical Division of Oncology, Waehringer Guertel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria; WissHom (Scientific Society for Homeopathy), Köthen, Germany. Electronic address: michael.frass@meduniwien.ac.at.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Frass
authors.affiliation: WissHom (Scientific Society for Homeopathy), Köthen, Germany. Electronic address: helmut.friehs@gmx.net.
authors.forename: Helmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Friehs
authors.affiliation: Medical University of Vienna, Department of Medicine I, Clinical Division of Oncology, Waehringer Guertel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: christiane.thallinger@meduniwien.ac.at.
authors.forename: Christiane
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Thallinger
authors.affiliation: Medical University of Vienna, Department of Medicine I, Clinical Division of Oncology, Waehringer Guertel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: narinderjit.sohal@meduniwien.ac.at.
authors.forename: Narinderjit Kaur
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Sohal
authors.affiliation: Medical University of Vienna, Department of Medicine I, Clinical Division of Oncology, Waehringer Guertel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: christine.marosi@meduniwien.ac.at.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Marosi
authors.affiliation: Austrian Chamber of Pharmacists, Department Vienna, HomResearch, Interdisciplinary Homeopathic Research Group, Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: ilse.muchitsch@chello.at.
authors.forename: Ilse
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Muchitsch
authors.affiliation: Medical University of Vienna, Department of Medicine I, Clinical Division of Oncology, Waehringer Guertel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: katha_gh@web.de.
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gaertner
authors.affiliation: Medical University of Vienna, Center for Medical Statistics, Informatics and Intelligent Systems, Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: andreas.gleiss@meduniwien.ac.at.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gleiss
authors.affiliation: Medical University of Vienna, Center for Medical Statistics, Informatics and Intelligent Systems, Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: ernst.schuster@meduniwien.ac.at.
authors.forename: Ernst
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Schuster
authors.affiliation: Shaare Zedek Medical Center, The Center for Integrative Complementary Medicine, Jerusalem, Israel. Electronic address: oberbaum@netvision.net.il.
authors.forename: Menachem
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Oberbaum
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001317:Austria; D000529:Complementary Therapies / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006705:Homeopathy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D010146:Pain; D011788:Quality of Life
keywords: Additive homeopathy; Cancer; Global health status; Homeopathy; Subjective well being