Dr. Isaac Golden defined Homeoprophylaxis as: the systematic
use of homeopathically potentised substance to prevent the development
of the characteristic symptoms of infectious disease.
Dr. Golden's work on Homeoprophylaxis is well known. There are
very few clinical research projects in homeopathy that are well
formulated and can stand the tests of statistical accuracy and scientific
rigor. Dr Golden's work on Homeoprophylaxis is one such novel effort
in understanding an aspect of homeopathy that has been present since
the time of Hahnemann but is still considered controversial.
This book is a research report which examines the safety and efficacy
of Dr. Golden's long term Homeoprophylaxis program. This program
was started in 1986 and the participating parents were asked to
complete annual questionnaires describing the experience of their
children who were using the program. Questions were asked regarding
the reactions to the remedies in the program; whether their child
was exposed to an infectious disease covered by the program, whether
their child contacted the disease, any comments the parents wished
to make about the program.
The evaluation of the efficacy and safety of the program involved
the analysis of questionnaires received from parents from 1988 to
2002. Over those fifteen years, the parents of 1,159 children returned
2,342 questionnaires from which the research report is derived.
According to Dr. Golden the purpose of this research report is
-
- To provide the homeopathic community about factual information
on the safety of long-term Homeoprophylaxis program.
- To show governments and Public Health authorities the potential
value of an appropriate Homeoprophylaxis program as an option
to conventional vaccination. The point is made that a dual system
of immunization has the potential to both expand national coverage
against infectious diseases and reduce the incidence of childhood
illnesses such as asthma and eczema.
- To help parents make informed decision about using homeopathic
prophylaxis by providing actual research data and feedback from
other parents.
The book begins with an introduction and information about the
homeoprophylaxis program. After that the methods used for data collection
and analysis have been layed out. The rest of the book deals with
the analysis of the data collected. The data has been discussed
and presented in tabular form under the following heads-
- The number of responses collected in each year
- Diseases suffered by children using the program
- Exposure to diseases suffered by children using the program
- Tests to validate the date for efficacy
- The efficacy of the long term homeoprophylaxis program
- Reactions to the remedies used in the program
- Comments on a General Health Survey of children using Homeoprophylaxis
program
- The safety of long-term homeoprophylaxis program
- A Comparison of different homeoprophylaxis programs
The data is very clear, very well arranged and methodically presented.
The nature of discussion is technical, yet it is fairly easy to
understand. The section that lists the parents' general comments
(verbatim) about their child's health is a delight to read.
The salient points of this research are -
(1) The consistency of measures of the effectiveness of HP at
around 90%. This is a very strong figure, and very consistent
with vaccine efficacy.
(2) Long-term HP program was associated with an improvement in
general well being and that the incidence of diseases like eczema
and asthma goes down when homeoprophylaxis is used.
This work is an objective presentation of the research findings
and does not try to present any subjective notions or the author's
beliefs to the readers. If you want to see methods for rigorous
clinical research or if you wish to find scientific data about the
efficacy of homeopathic alternative to vaccination - this book is
for you! |