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Homoeopathy for delayed onset muscle soreness: a randomised double blind placebo controlled trial
A J Vickers1, P Fisher, C Smith
1Division of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Oxford, Radcliffe Infirmary, United Kingdom.
Objective:
To pilot a model for determining whether a homoeopathic medicine is superior to placebo for delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS).
Design:
Randomised double blind placebo controlled trial.
Setting:
Physiotherapy department of a homoeopathic hospital.
Subjects:
Sixty eight healthy volunteers (average age 30; 41% men) undertook a 10 minute period of bench stepping carrying a small weight and were randomised to a homoeopathic medicine or placebo.
Outcome Measures:
Mean muscle soreness in the five day period after the exercise test, symptom free days, maximum soreness score, days to no soreness, days on medication.
Results:
The difference between group means was 0.17 in favour of placebo with 95% confidence intervals +/- 0.50. Similar results were found for other outcome measures.
Conclusion:
The study did not find benefit of the homoeopathic remedy in DOMS. Bench stepping may not be an appropriate model to evaluate the effects of a treatment on DOMS because of wide variation between subject soreness scores.