One of the common misconceptions about the science of homeopathy is that there isn’t any. Or, as I like to joke, everyone who knows nothing about homeopathy knows it doesn’t work. To clear this up Dr Robert Mathie developed a systemic review and meta-analysis program for homeopathic research. A large part of his goal was to find high quality, reliable studies that he could present to the House of Commons’ Science and Technology Committee the next time they do a review.

Instead of me “re-telling” you about Dr Robert Mathie’s work. It is better for you to get the information from the horses mouth. Here is Dr Robert Mathie’s presentation at the Homeopathy Research Institute’s conference in London in 2020.

If you are a short on time. Here is his summary.

They evaluated 131 studies and found 13 which they concluded had “minimal risk of bias”.

Dr Robert Mathie said, “These are the 13 studies. And, those that are highlighted in green are the five that have the extraordinarily highly reliable evidence. That if there was an evidence check 3 from the committee (House of Commons’ Science and Technology Committee) along the road these are the ones that we would be pointing out and shouting about. Saying this is the evidence for homeopathy from our random controlled trials objectively and analytically achieved.”

Here are links to the five studies.

Improved clinical status in fibromyalgia patients treated with individualized homeopathic remedies versus placebo *

Homeopathic treatment of acute childhood diarrhea: results from a clinical trial in Nepal *

Homeopathic treatment of acute otitis media in children: a preliminary randomized placebo-controlled trial *

Efficacy of a non-hormonal treatment, BRN-01, on menopausal hot flashes: a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial *

Interim results of a randomised controlled trial of homeopathic treatment for irritable bowel syndrome

Dr Robert Mathie’s further analysis reduced this number to four (starred above) ‘unequivocally robust’ studies which show “ positive findings pooled across the four. And they unequivocally have excellent homeopathic treatment of the patients contained in the study.”

These four trials have an odds ratio of 2.05. Dr Robert Mathie then explains, “An odds ratio of two means that the homeopathic treatment effect can be seen to be twice that of the placebo. The odds of homeopathy being effective is twice that of the placebo.”

His conclusion was there are five studies showing unequivocal evidence that homeopathy is effective in blind placebo trials. And, further high quality trials are required.

If after reading this article you would like to learn more about the homeopathic research. A good place to go is the Homeopathic Research Institute. There they have a database of over 1200 clinical studies.