I am a homeopathic doctor and I work in Verona, Italy. My first contact with homoeopathy happened when I was a child, thanks to my family doctor. In fact, he was a homeopath and, for years he has always treated me and my family using homeopathy for the minor problems. In Italy, homoeopathy is not particularly widespread inside the medical community. For me it has been a privilege to be assisted by a doctor competent within the field of non conventional medicines.
Experiencing the effectiveness of homoeopathy as a patient and in all my relatives, I become curious and promised myself to do a deep study of this methodology. I wanted to understand the basis of it. I enrolled at the University of Medicine and, at the end of the course of study, I have began the study of homeopathy. I attended a school for three years to become a homeopath. I learned the classical homeopathic methodology and studied repertory and materia medica. On graduating, I got a diploma with honors. I presented a thesis on a pilot protocol regarding the clinical verification of the homeopathic symptoms, studied with the so called “LR (Likelihood Ratio)”, according to the guidelines from LIGA in 2013 for the “Clinical Verification of Homeopathic Symptoms”. This study was directed by professor Paolo Bellavite. I had the fortune and the honour of meeting him at the University of Verona. He has dedicated a lot of his work to the study of the homeopathy in vitro and his work is well known all over the world. I have written some articles with him and, thanks to this collaboration, have also deepened my knowledge of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of high dilutions. In addition, I could study with greater attention the methodological criteria and management of scientific research.
In Italy the present situation is not easy for homeopathy, since there are many voices denigrating it. It is not yet accepted in the medical community, with some local exceptions. There has been some progress: The necessary courses of study to become a homeopathic doctor were acknowledged in 2013, and homeopathic products were recognized for use as medicines in 2017. However, insufficient doctors are getting involved, so there is the serious risk that within a few years there will be not enough homeopathic doctors. Most of the doctors who study this medicine do it at the end of their careers, or often out of curiosity, sometimes not even to practice it as their main healing mode.
I believe that more scientific research is absolutely necessary and hope that the homeopathic community will be able to demonstrate new evidence, with clinical studies and basic research as well. Now that homeopathic remedies are in the pharmaceutical handbook, it is important that homeopathy be included as a subject of study in medical and pharmacy schools. Many doctors in our country do not attempt the study of homeopathy because they don’t understand know its basis nor its potential for healing.
Based on my experience and daily clinical practice, I am convinced that homeopathy should always be understood as an “integrated medicine”. In doing so, we are able to treat all the patients with both conventional and non conventional treatments. I think that all doctors should be trained in homoeopathy or at the least should comprehend its potential. In this way, we will not to deprive our patients of a therapeutic modality that has been passed on for over two hundred years.
