Letter from former IAVH General Secretary Dr. Petra Weiermayer

Homeopathic veterinarians are all conventionally trained veterinarians. We understand disease and health as do our conventional colleagues. We use conventional diagnostics and therapeutics as needed. We have added homeopathy as another tool with which to help animals in our care. Homeopathic veterinarians have chosen to study and use homeopathy because we have seen benefits to patients. There is also significant research evidence supporting the effectiveness of veterinary homeopathy.

Please see our letter to the editor on the review of Doehring and Sundrum published in the Veterinary Record in December 2016, which summarises the current state of research in veterinary homeopathy. (CLICK to download.) Please read also a review (below, in Articles section) of a masters thesis performed by a human doctor (Melanie Woelk) on research in homeopathy, with the conclusion that homeopathy is an evidence-based medicine. Research of the crucial question whether veterinary homeopathy works according to the rules for evidence-based medicine (EBM) has to be performed, although some studies which show this evidence exist already.

Currently, there are one out of two evidence class 1a reviews, and one evidence class 1a meta-analysis, stating positive outcome for veterinary homeopathy, as well as one out of two evidence class 1b studies stating positive outcome for veterinary homeopathy, so veterinary homeopathy could be classified as evidence based. More high quality research is certainly needed.

For FAQ's on homeopathy we would like to refer to the website of the HRI (Homeopathy Research Institute); we are working together with regard to research.

For further information on research in homeopathy please see this page, also from HRI.

The ECH (European Committee for Homeopathy) and the UK Faculty of Homeopathy certify and examine medical and veterinary professionals in the practice of homeopathy, and their websites also discuss current research efforts.

ECH Research page  Faculty Research page

WissHom page (https://www.wisshom.de/)

Dr. Petra Weiermayer

Homeopathic Case Reports in the Journal of the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association

The Journal of the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association (JAHVMA) has recently made available a sample of some nice homeopathic case reports by IAVH members Liesbeth Ellinger and Henry Stephenson. Liesbeth's case is Pemphigus Foliaceous in a horse, and Henry's is an Akita with Eosinophilic Meningoencephalitis. Both cases were treated successfully with homeopathic medicines. This sample page is available at the following link, courtesy of the AHVMA:

https://www.ahvma.org/sample-ahvma-journal-articles/


Carstens Stiftung [Carstens Foundation] Veterinary Homeopathy Research Database Online Again!

The Karl and Veronica Carstens Foundation (www.carstens-stiftung.de) have once again published their extensive database of veterinary homeopathic medicine research articles and supporting documents (Currently 445 clinical trials and case histories, as of June 2020). Registration is necessary but is free.

HomVetCR (Clinical Research on Veterinary Homeopathy)

General information about their New Database Portal for Complementary Medicine.


Homeopathy Research Institute leads the way with Research into Homeopathic Medicine

CORE-Hom is the most comprehensive and academically rigorous database of its kind in the world, and the only homeopathy database providing information about the quality of the studies it contains. It is a collaboration between Carstens Stiftung and Homeopathy Research Database.

HRI Research Database

Any research IAVH supports should be vetted by the HRI scientific committee, which consists of experts from around the world who understand and participate in research in homeopathic medicine.

HRI Scientific Advisory Committee

HRI undertaking a new study to investigate the quality of homeopathic research. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29377709


BAHVS/IAVH Research-Database

Editor's note, December 22, 2021. Dr. Elliott's website went down recently and is under construction. I placed his articles on the IAVH website for now, but hopefully the original site comes online again before long. Click here to see the articles.

The BAHVS/IAVH Data collection project began in January 2013. The aim is to collect and collate peer-reviewed and non- peer reviewed papers on veterinary homeopathy to provide a searchable database of the evidence for Veterinary Homeopathy that now has assumed global significance.

The vehicle for the project is the website www.homeopathicvet.org; this is an open website which is freely accessible and therefore provides a resource which is available to anyone wishing to investigate the evidence base providing the foundations for the use of homeopathy in the veterinary sphere.

The information is sourced by searching the scientific literature, using on-line and open databases. In the main it can only access at this time the data in English, so collaboration with overseas colleagues could well expand the data still further by adding papers we cannot read the language of, and thus source.

As a bit of fun at first, but now as more information has been discovered as a serious part of the project we also have a growing database on Agrohomeopathy.

I am the co-ordinator of the project: I am the past President of the BAHVS and an elected member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons Council. I am grateful for the help of Lindsay Cope in performing a lot of the practical work transferring the information onto the site. This work takes an enormous amount of time and we have been fortunate in receiving a generous donation from Ilse Pedlar VetMFHom MRCVS which helped us to grow the body of work remarkably rapidly.

So far the site contains over a thousand publications, approximately 840 of which are peer reviewed and  490 non-peer reviewed. In addition there are 379 Agrohomeopathy references. 

Case histories which have been published can be accepted; otherwise they should be submitted for inclusion in the MMVH project.

If you have a paper which you would like to be included, or you know of one which would be of interest, please send them directly to me at homeopathicvet(at)btinternet.com or to IAVH via the IAVH office: office(at)iavh.org

At present the information is not sub-divided, and a goal for the future is to collate it into  categories for easier research. We also hope to access more work in other languages.

If you have any queries or wish to be involved in this project, please feel free to contact me.

Mark Elliott BVSc VetMFHom MRCVS
Co-ordinator BAHVS/IAVH Data collection project

Research-Database on clinical homoeopathy

The Karl and Veronica Carstens Foundation (www.carstens-stiftung.de) has created an online database of clinical research in homeopathy. Interested parties can obtain an overview of the scope and content of previous research efforts in the field of veterinary homeopathy. Anyone who wants to be active themselves in this field or already works in research gets a good insight into the current state of research in his area of ​​responsibility. It should be noted that the individual contributions are listed multiple times depending on the question in the results because the study was treated within several questions. It also should be noted that the claim of completeness isn’t raised with the present database; each user is invited to report any gaps, so that they can be closed immediately. Other critical comments are welcome. 

The following page provides links to human research databases.

Clinical Research-Database in Homeopathy


Interviews & Videos

Dr. Saurav Arora, founder of Initiative to Promote Research in Homeopathy, attempts to scientifically answer many queries like dilution, dynamization, mode of action, transfer of biological information, physicochemical properties, and so on. This is the most updated work purely based upon the peer-reviewed scientific publications dedicated to fundamental research in high dilution and homeopathy.

Links to other articles/extracts about homeopathic research

This research project used nanoparticle testing to show that properly prepared homeopathic remedies in higher dilutions still contain particles, in apparent contradiction to Avogadro's number:

Nanoparticle Characterisation of Traditional Homeopathically Manufactured Cuprum metallicum and Gelsemium sempervirensMedicines and Controls

This small study showed that homeopathic remedy provings elicit more symptoms than placebo, suggesting that indeed remedies at dilution do produce reactions in the body:

Quantitative and Qualitative Pathogenetic Indices for Review of Data Derived from Homeopathic Pathogenetic Trials

Interview with Shelley Epstein and Myriam Favre-French
Interview Myriam Favre-French
Interview John Saxton

Articles