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Letters |21 October 2003

A Critical Overview of Homeopathy

Giovanni Federspil, MD; Fabio Presotto, MD; Roberto Vettor, MD

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  • From University of Padua Medical School Padova I-35128, Italy.
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TO THE EDITOR:
Jonas and colleagues (1) sought to critically appraise homeopathy. This issue, along with the spread of other alternative medical therapies in western countries, is very important because it places all of scientific medicine in doubt (2). Jonas and colleagues' paper only partially describes homeopathyit does not define the historical origin of this doctrine and discusses only its pharmacologic and therapeutic aspects.
Homeopathy was born in the 18th and 19th centuries, when medical systems, such as the doctrine of John Brown in England, dominated Europe. According to medical systems, each pathologic phenomenon consists of 2 opposing concepts (for example, Brown believed that all diseases were hyposthenic or hypersthenic) (3). The doctrine developed by Hahnemann was a medical system in which homeopathic and allopathic remedies were the opposing approaches. This distinction between allopathy and homeopathy now makes no sense because most drugs are given not to suppress symptoms but to break down etiopathogenic sequences. Hahnemann's theory claims that all chronic diseases can be divided into 3 pathologic formspsora, lues, and sycosis (which do not correspond to the current nosography)that arise not from material causes but from a perturbation of the vital spirit. Accordingly, drugs act not because of their material structure but because of their power to influence the vital force of the living organism. Many orthodox homeopathic physicians still support this theory.
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Federspil G, Presotto F, Vettor R. A Critical Overview of Homeopathy. Ann Intern Med. ;139:W–75. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-139-8-200310210-00026-w3

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Published: Ann Intern Med. 2003;139(8):W-75.

DOI: 10.7326/0003-4819-139-8-200310210-00026-w3

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2003 American College of Physicians
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