Prognostic factor research in Homoeopathy

Abstract

Validation of homoeopathic medicines is about validating effectiveness in individual cases. Homoeopathic practitioners base their expectation that a medicine will work on the experience that specific symptoms of the patient indicate specific medicines. The prevalence of such symptoms is higher in a population responding well to a specific medicine than in the remainder of the population. This principle has a solid mathematical foundation in Bayes’ theorem, identifies homoeopathic symptoms as prognostic factors, and offers an interesting perspective of individualized research. This kind of research depends on recording symptoms and results of treatment. An important challenge in this research is establishing causality between medicine and improved health. Prognostic factor research could become one of the main pillars of Homoeopathy’s scientific identity.