Scientific evidence of the homeopathic epistemological model

Abstract

Homeopathy is based on principles and a system of knowledge different from the ones supporting the conventional biomedical model: this epistemological conflict is the underlying reason explaining why it is so difficult to accept by present-day scientific reason. To legitimize homeopathy according to the standards of the latter, research must confirm the validity of its basic assumptions: principle of therapeutic similitude, trials of medicines on healthy individuals, individualized prescriptions and use of high dilutions. Correspondingly, basic research must supply experimental data and models to substantiate these principles of homeopathy, whilst clinical trials aim at confirming the efficacy and effectiveness of homeopathy in the treatment of disease. This article discusses the epistemological model of homeopathy relating its basic assumptions with data resulting from different fields of modern experimental research and supporting its therapeutic use on the outcomes of available clinical trials. In this regard, the principle of individualization of treatment is the sine qua non condition to make therapeutic similitude operative and consequently for homeopathic treatment to exhibit clinical efficacy and effectiveness.