Efficacy of Individualized Homeopathy as an Adjunct to Standard of Care of COVID-19: A Randomized, Single-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study

Background and Aim: As per World Health Organization (WHO), ~80% of COVID-19 infections are mild-to-moderate or asymptomatic; 15% develop severe disease and 5% have a critical disease with complications. In the initial part of the pandemic, there was no antiviral specific to COVID-19 available. Multiple different therapeutic options like antimalarial, HIV medications, antivirals, antihelminthics, and steroids have been repurposed for the management of COVID-19 in various phases of the pandemic and studies have been undertaken to estimate their efficacy. Similarly, various homeopathic medicines were also suggested for prophylaxis and treatment of COVID-19, and research studies were undertaken. This study evaluates the clinical efficacy of adjunct individualized homeopathic care along with the standard of care in hospitalized COVID-19-positive patients.

Methods: This single-center, randomized, single-blind, placebo-controlled study involving 300 patients was conducted at a dedicated COVID-19 hospital in Bhopal, India. Eligible patients were randomized to receive adjunct homeopathy [standard of care + homeopathy (SC + H), n = 151] or placebo [standard of care + placebo (SC + P), n = 149] along with the standard of care. The primary outcome was the change in the total symptom score over 10 days.

Results: GLM-ANOVA showed a statistically significant decrease in total symptom score in SC + H group compared with SC + P [ F _{(1, 297)} = 56.13, p = 0.0001]. The clinical recovery was 2 days earlier in the SC + H group (SC + H: [5.95 ± 0.16 days], 95% CI: 5.63 to 6.27; SC + P: [7.69 ± 0.12 days]; 95% CI: 6.58 to 7.03; p = 0.0001). Time to fever clearance was 20 hours earlier in the SC + H group compared with the SC + P (SC + H: [35.04 ± 6.48 hours], 95% CI: 22.32 to 47.75; SC + P: [55.79 ± 9.05 hours]; 95% CI: 38.04 to 73.54; p = 0.04).

Conclusion: Adjunctive individualized homeopathic management with an integrated standard of care has resulted in better clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19 in terms of early recovery. Further, double-blind, controlled studies are needed to confirm these results.

Keywords: Homeopathy, integrative medicine, COVID-19

Publication History

Article published online:
30 January 2024