A 2009 study in the journal Evidence Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine compared individualized homeopathy to the drug Prozac.  Ninety-one patients with moderate to severe depression were treated either with Prozac or by individualized homeopathy.  Neither the patient nor the doctor knew which treatment the patient received.

Over the eight weeks of the study, patients responded equally well to both treatments.  In other words, homeopathy was just as effective at reducing depression as Prozac.  In addition, the patients treated with homeopathy reported fewer troubling side effects, and they were significantly less likely to discontinue use of homeopathy due to side effects.

This is a great study for several reasons:

• It meets one of the key “gold standards” for medical research: it is double-blinded.  Basically, each patient gave a complete medical history to a qualified homeopathic doctor.  The doctor identified what the correct homeopathic remedy was for that patient.  Then the patient randomly received either that remedy or Prozac.  Neither the patient nor the doctor knew which treatment was given.

Thus the results are highly objective.  They cannot be due to reporting bias, where the patient reports more favorably if he knows he’s taking one remedy or the other.  The results are also not attributable to the therapeutic relationship between the patient and doctor.  Homeopathy’s remarkable success is often written off by conventional doctors as the result of the homeopathic physician being so empathic and concerned about his patient.  It feels good to have someone actually take the time to listen to you!

• It compares two different treatment approaches, rather than compare a treatment to placebo.  In the conventional placebo-controlled model, the treatment simply has to be better than nothing!  In this model, the treatment has to be better than the current standard of practice.  This comparative research model is gaining in popularity, as it helps physicians choose among available treatment options.

• It demonstrates what every good homeopath knows:  Homeopathy is wonderful for treating depression, as well as a host of other conditions that destroy lives and stymie the best efforts of conventional medicine.

Read the abstract on Medline by following this link:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19687192