Medical School of University of São Paulo (FMUSP), São Paulo, Brazil
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 homeopathy 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 the basic assumptions, 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.
Keywords: Foundations of homeopathy; Medical education; Law of similar; Pharmacodynamic action of homeopathic remedies; Biomedical research.
Founded in 1796 by German physician Samuel Hahnemann, homeopathy is a medical approach employed worldwide and that continually awakens the interest of users, medical students and doctors ever since .
The reason is that it allows for a safe and efficient therapeutic practice, while it seeks to comprehend and treat patients and their diseases within a globalizing and humanistic framework [2,3], which gives especial value to different facets of ill individuals in their uniqueness.
Regarding its institutionalization, the case of Brazil is one among the ones illustrating a high degree of development. Homeopathy was acknowledged as a medical specialty by the Federal Council of Medicine (CFM) in 1980 (Resolution CFM 1000/80) and the Brazilian Medical Association (AMB) confers the degree of specialist since 1990. Homeopathic physicians, thus, are a part of the medical community. Homeopathy is taught in lato sensu post-graduation programs (1,200-hours) hosted by institutions associated with the Brazilian Homeopathic Medical Association (AMHB). Homeopathic consultations are covered by medical insurance companies and since 1985 were also made available at the National Health System.
It is estimated that there are about 15,000 homeopathic medical practitioners in the country. In a survey carried out the last decade among Brazilian doctors by Fiocruz Foundation and CFM , homeopathy ranked th 17 among 61 medical specialties regarding the number of doctors who defined it as their primary area of activity. After approval by the National Commission of Medical Residency in 2002 (Resolution CFM 1634/2002), homeopathy was included in the medical residency program of Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO, University Hospital Gaffré e Guinle) as an option for on-the-job-training  being an adjuvant to conventional treatment of disease in both outpatient clinic and wards. This unique example ofintegrated medicine allows for an ongoing dialog between distinct medical systems to the benefit of patients,since it offers them the best available means of diagnosis, treatment and prophylaxis of disease.
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