BACKGROUND
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a global pandemic by WHO on 11th March 2020. Witnessing the pattern of relapse of cases, varying severity of cases and persistence of symptoms through different waves of pandemic has emerged as the reason for the studies targeting post-covid status of individuals.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this survey was to assess the long-term effectiveness of homoeopathic medicines when used as an adjunct therapy along with the conventional therapy during covid infection in oxygen-dependent, moderate and severe patients.
METHODS
The survey was carried out from 1st April 2022 to 29 May 2022 via telephonic conversation among 219 participants who were discharged from AIIMS, Jhajjar, Haryana and St. George Hospital, Mumbai, India and had participated in two different placebo-controlled, randomised trials held at these two hospitals where individualised homoeopathic medicines were given to the experimental groups in addition to the conventional treatment. The post-COVID-19 Functional Status (PCFS) Scale was employed to evaluate the functional status of the surviving survey participants and to compare the status between the add-on Homoeopathy (AoH) group and the add-on placebo (AoP) group.
RESULTS
The mean score of PCFS Scale between the groups were compared using the chi-square test, which was presumed to be statistically significant at P<0.05. In total, 93 participants of AoH group showed more functional ability with mean difference of 0.83±1.47 (mean ± SD), as opposed to 1.33±1.63 (mean ± SD) among the AoP group participants (P=.04). Percentage of participants who developed post-COVID diabetes mellitus or hypertension, or shortness of breath on exertion and was found to be 17.20%, 8.60% and 6.45%, respectively in the AoH group, as compared to 17.57%, 9.68% and 10.81%, respectively in the AoP group. No incidence of post covid anxiety, pneumonia and chronic/acute kidney disease was reported in the AoH group while it was 1.35%, 1.35% and 4.05% respectively in the AoP group. The ability to perform daily chores was observed to be in 57% of the participants of AoH group, as against 43% of those in the AoP group.
CONCLUSIONS
Homoeopathy, when given as an add-on therapy in COVID-19, helps in faster recovery from acute infections such as COVID19, with a higher proportion of participants being able to perform daily chores, along with an improvement in their general weakness, even after the medicine was discontinued. This proved the long term effectiveness of homoeopathic treatment when used as an adjunct therapy along with the conventional therapy in the oxygen-dependent, moderate or severe patients of COVID-19.
CLINICALTRIAL
As it was a survey, trial registration is not mandatory.