Effects of acupuncture and homeopathy: prospective documentation. Interim results

To evaluate the overall effectiveness in general practice of homeopathy and acupuncture, and to estimate costs.

Prospective documentation of all patients insured with an insurance company who are provided with free treatment of acupuncture and homeopathy. 4000 patients treated by acupuncture and 1000 patients by homeopathy will be enrolled. All patients will be followed up from the beginning of treatment for another 4 years. Doctors will provide data on each visit (diagnosis, treatment, change of symptoms, etc.), patients will fill in questionnaires at the beginning and at the end of treatment, as well as each year after the end of treatment (complaints, current treatment, general health status as measured by the MOS-SF 36). Insurance data on workdays lost will be provided by the insurance company.

Data acquisition and entry is continuing. Up to now data from the first questionnaire of 1453 patients have been entered and 951 patients have returned the follow-up questionnaire. Doctors' ratings of the change of the main diagnosis shows improvement of around 80% with only 2% deteriorated. This impression is vindicated by the patients' follow-up questionnaire. 36% patients rated the therapy as efficacious, 47% as partially efficacious. Quality of life as measured by the SF 36 questionnaire improved significantly in all dimensions. Data on workdays off will be presented.

Homeopathy and acupuncture are clinically effective in a variety of medical problems.