Homeoprophylaxis – A Fifteen Year Clinical Study

Author: Dr. Isaac Golden
Pages: 151/soft cover
ISBN: 0-957872631
Publisher: Isaac Golden
Reviewed By: Dr. Manish Bhatia
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Dr. Isaac Golden defined Homeoprophylaxis as: the systematic use of homeopathically potentised substance to prevent the development of the characteristic symptoms of infectious disease.

Dr. Golden’s work on Homeoprophylaxis is well known. There are very few clinical research projects in homeopathy that are well formulated and can stand the tests of statistical accuracy and scientific rigor. Dr Golden’s work on Homeoprophylaxis is one such novel effort in understanding an aspect of homeopathy that has been present since the time of Hahnemann but is still considered controversial.

This book is a research report which examines the safety and efficacy of Dr. Golden’s long term Homeoprophylaxis program. This program was started in 1986 and the participating parents were asked to complete annual questionnaires describing the experience of their children who were using the program. Questions were asked regarding the reactions to the remedies in the program; whether their child was exposed to an infectious disease covered by the program, whether their child contacted the disease, any comments the parents wished to make about the program.

The evaluation of the efficacy and safety of the program involved the analysis of questionnaires received from parents from 1988 to 2002. Over those fifteen years, the parents of 1,159 children returned 2,342 questionnaires from which the research report is derived.

According to Dr. Golden the purpose of this research report is –

• To provide the homeopathic community about factual information on the safety of long-term Homeoprophylaxis program.
• To show governments and Public Health authorities the potential value of an appropriate Homeoprophylaxis program as an option to conventional vaccination. The point is made that a dual system of immunization has the potential to both expand national coverage against infectious diseases and reduce the incidence of childhood illnesses such as asthma and eczema.
• To help parents make informed decision about using homeopathic prophylaxis by providing actual research data and feedback from other parents.

The book begins with an introduction and information about the homeoprophylaxis program. After that the methods used for data collection and analysis have been layed out. The rest of the book deals with the analysis of the data collected. The data has been discussed and presented in tabular form under the following heads-

• The number of responses collected in each year
• Diseases suffered by children using the program
• Exposure to diseases suffered by children using the program
• Tests to validate the date for efficacy
• The efficacy of the long term homeoprophylaxis program
• Reactions to the remedies used in the program
• Comments on a General Health Survey of children using Homeoprophylaxis program
• The safety of long-term homeoprophylaxis program
• A Comparison of different homeoprophylaxis programs

The data is very clear, very well arranged and methodically presented. The nature of discussion is technical, yet it is fairly easy to understand. The section that lists the parents’ general comments (verbatim) about their child’s health is a delight to read.

The salient points of this research are –

(1) The consistency of measures of the effectiveness of HP at around 90%. This is a very strong figure, and very consistent with vaccine efficacy.

(2) Long-term HP program was associated with an improvement in general well being and that the incidence of diseases like eczema and asthma goes down when homeoprophylaxis is used.

This work is an objective presentation of the research findings and does not try to present any subjective notions or the author’s beliefs to the readers. If you want to see methods for rigorous clinical research or if you wish to find scientific data about the efficacy of homeopathic alternative to vaccination – this book is for you!