Effect of Homoeopathic treatment on Activity of Daily Living (ADL) in Knee Osteoarthritis: A prospective observational study

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate the effect of individualized homoeopathic medicines in improving ADL by reducing pain, stiffness and limiting the disease progress. Materials and Methods: 131 consecutive patients with OA of knee were recruited and followed up for minimum period of twelve months. Two orthopaedic surgeons diagnosed the disease based on clinical examination of the patients. Three trained homoeopathic physicians prescribed individualized homoeopathic simillimum and the patients were evaluated for pain on WOMAC Osteoarthritis Index LK3.1 (IK) survey form measuring pain, stiffness and ADL. The pain was also measured on Numerical pain rating scale for confirmation. Result: Individualized homoeopathic medicines prescribed as per law of similia improved the mean ADL from 35.85 to 19.08 (p‑ 0.0001). Mean pain on WOMAC Osteoarthritis Index survey form improved from 10.50 to 5.48 (p‑0.0001). The mean pain score on NRS improved from 6.34 to 3.77 (p‑0.0001) and the mean morning stiffness also improved from 4.55 to 2.18 (p‑0.0001). Conclusion: Homoeopathic medicines have potential to improve the ADL of OA patients by reducing pain and stiffness and limiting progress of the disease without any adverse systemic effects and can safely be employed as a comprehensive health care therapeutics.