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What's the article about?
- It analyses the efficacy of the homoeopathic system.
Relevance:
- GS2: Issues Relating to Development and Management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources;
- Prelims
Context:
- The recent push to integrate ‘AYUSH’ medicinal systems into mainstream health care to achieve universal health coverage and ‘decolonise medicine’ is a pluralistic approach that would require every participating system to meet basic safety and efficacy standards.
- Thus, in this article, the writer analyses the homoeopathic system.
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What is Homoeopathy?
Homoeopathy differs from conventional medicine in the following ways:
What are the various systems of medicines?
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Analysis:
- Efficacy and safety of homoeopathy:
- Evidence on homoeopathy’s efficacy is weak, and multiple systematic reviews and meta-analyses have found that homoeopathic treatments lack clinically significant effects.
- Further, researchers have demonstrated that more than half of the homoeopathic trials in the last two decades were not registered, throwing the validity and reliability of evidence thus generated into doubt.
- Seeking homoeopathic care also delays the application of evidence-based clinical care and has caused injuries and sometimes death.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned against homoeopathic treatments for several diseases, saying it has “no place” in their treatment.
- On standards:
- Homoeopathy’s supporters argue that the standards commonly used in evidence-based medicine are not suitable for judging the “holistic effects” of homoeopathy.
- However, this claim can be debunked. Homoeopathy advocates have failed to invent valid alternative evidence synthesis frameworks suited for testing its efficacy and safety, which are also acceptable to the critics.
- Evidence-based medicine does not and should not stop at establishing empirical evidence. The quest is also to discover and explain the mechanisms underlying the evidence.
- In the last century, there has been no concrete evidence for proposed mechanisms of action for homoeopathy.
- Decolonisation and homoeopathy:
- Homoeopathy was introduced in India during the colonial period for colonial benefit, and its traditional tag is untenable.
- Decolonisation cannot be a reason to support homoeopathy. India’s path to universal health care must be grounded in evidence-based and ethics-driven medicine.
- India's path to universal healthcare:
- India's pluralistic health system offers a range of medical treatment modalities to its population, including homoeopathy.
- Homoeopathy wellness centres comprise 31% of the total for AYUSH. Seven out of 10 diseases recognised as a national health burden are in the category of most commonly reported diseases at the homoeopathy wellness centres.
- However, homoeopathy needs to meet basic safety and efficacy standards to contribute substantially to achieve universal healthcare in India.
Way Forward:
- Thus, homoeopathy does not meet basic safety and efficacy standards, and its supporters' arguments for expanding its use by citing demand and decolonisation are flawed. India's path to universal health care must be grounded in evidence-based and ethics-driven medicine
