Role of homoeopathy in the management of adhesive capsulitis: A pretest-posttest study

Abstract

Background: Adhesive capsulitis (AC) is an insidious and painful stiffening of the glenohumeral (shoulder) joint, resulting in compromised functional ability and quality of life (QoL). Objectives: Primary objective was to evaluate change in shoulder pain after individualised homoeopathy treatment for over 2 months. Secondary objective was to assess the change in the QoL and outcome related to impact on daily living (ORIDL). Methods: A single-arm, pretest-posttest, clinical study on AC was conducted on 40 participants recruited from the outpatient clinic of rheumatological disorders at Clinical Research Unit (Homoeopathy), Siliguri, West Bengal, India. Medicines were prescribed on the basis of the totality of symptoms. Changes in shoulder pain over 2 months were evaluated using the shoulder pain and disability index (SPADI). QoL was evaluated using SF-12v2 and ORIDL (participants and physician assessed), respectively. Results: Thirty-six participants completed the study and four participants dropped out. A protocol compliant sample of n = 36 was analysed. There was a statistically significant reduction of SPADI score (91.92 ± 10.22 vs. 34.14 ± 24.43; mean reduction 57.78, 95% CI 49.41–66.14, P < 0.001) and statistically significant increase in SF-12 v2 score (44.39 ± 9.70 vs. 72.27 ± 10.97; mean increase 27.87, 95% CI 23.89–31.85, P < 0.001). The Spearman’s correlation between the changes in physician assessment ORIDL scores and participants assessment ORIDL scores over 2 months suggested a statistically significant correlation (rs = 0.998, P < 0.01). Conclusion: The findings showed symptom alleviation, and improvement in the QoL after homoeopathic treatment. Randomised controlled trials are further warranted.