A new Euro-wide study confirms the safety of homeopathic medicines and treatment provided by professional homeopaths across Europe.

The study carried out by the European Council for Classical Homeopathy looked at the safety of the remedies, treatment by professional homeopaths and the safety of patients self-prescribing homeopathic remedies.

It reviewed case reports and studies along with current legislation and self-regulation of the profession.The study concluded that homeopathic medicines rarely cause adverse drug reactions and where they do these are “only mild or moderate and transient” due to the high dilutions of the remedies.

Homeopathy has no life-threatening side effects and “may safely be used during pregnancy and in the treatment of infants and children without risk of harm”

At a recent Health First Europe conference entitled ‘New Horizons’  the issue of patient safety was raised and it was pointed out that 197,000 patients die every year in the EU from adverse events and medical errors and 8-12% of hospitalised patients in the EU suffer adverse events as a result of healthcare.

In addition Healthcare Associated Infections (HCAIs) are acquired by approximately 4.1 million patients per year, 35 000 of whom die as a result. Homeopathy has an important role to play is helping prevent these highly unfortunate iatrogenic incidents.

Little evidence of malpractice

The safety study found here was very little evidence of cases of malpractice and precautionary measures had been put in place through national legislation and self regulation by the profession.

These measures involve regulations governing the manufacture and sale of homeopathic remedies,  the setting of competency standards for homeopaths and systems to deal with patient concerns and complaints.

Self-prescribing

The report raised  some concerns about patients self administering homeopathic remedies . It pointed out that these patients could be suffering from an undiagnosed disease and might arrive too late for homeopathic, conventional or other treatment by postponing consultation with a health professional.

Secondly since “the practice of homeopathy requires considerable education and training it may be difficult for users self-prescribing to consider the potential effect of these products.” 

The ECCH strongly recommends that patients consult with a qualified homeopath for any conditions other than “the most banal ones such as bruising resulting from falls and accidents or self-limiting conditions such as a common cold.” 

The Council has participative status with the Council of Europe, is an associate member of the European Public Health Alliance and a member of the European Federation for Complementary and Alternative Medicine 

In order to further contribute to the safety of patients, it has established a number of guidelines agreed by national member associations (including the Irish Society of Homeopaths) which include education, accreditation, registration and Continuous Professional Development.

The guidelines also cover codes of ethics, professional conduct procedures and the regulation of safe and ethical practice in addition to a system to enable patients to raise concerns and have a complaint acted upon if appropriate.