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Homeopathy does have a place
26 Feb 08
I write with reference to the homeopathy debate ('Does homeopathy have any place in general practice?').
I was called out at 3am to treat a man with right-sided quinsy. He was pyrexial, tachycardic, drooling and with such a degree of trismus, lancing his boil was impossible.
While examining him, the homeopathic remedy I had been reading about came to mind - Belladonna, a classic for sudden onset of inflammation with a hot red right cheek, pyrexia, dilated pupils, lachrymation, visible throbbing carotid pulsation and worsening of symptoms after midnight.
I had a homeopathic starter kit to hand so I popped a pill of Belladonna 30c in his mouth.
On returning 10 minutes later to set up a drip and administer his IV cefuroxime and metronidazole, I was somewhat surprised to find him sipping water. His pyrexia and tachycardia had settled.
I sent him home with antibiotics and he didn't need to reattend, although he did have his interval tonsillectomy three months later.
I was amazed and intrigued and have explored integrated medicine since. Belief in homeopathy still escapes my scientific comprehension, and yet patients get better. My partners send their heartsinks to me - these patients seem to stop attending the surgery or do so less often, and I gleefully tick the QOF boxes.
Not proof, nor evidence, but something to think about.
From Dr Andrew Sikorski, Wadhurst, East Sussex
Readers' comments
Perhaps it says much for Dr Sikorski's bedside manner that his patient's anxiety-related symptoms settled so promptly following the reassurance of seeing a sympathetic doctor at such an early hour of the morning during what was clearly a distressing episode.
However, it doesn't say much about the confidence Dr Sikorski has in the therapeutic abilities of the homeopathic remedy itself if he still has to rely on orthodox antibiotics to effect a cure.
I wonder if the appearance of this anecdote might be in any way related to Dr Sikorski's position on the executive council of the Faculty of Homeopaths, and that organisation's express aims to "promote the availability of homeopathy on the NHS"?
Dr Sikorski included MFHom among the letters after his name, but as a matter of style we do not include such information.
I'm a homeopath and a nurse and would welcome more cooperation between GPs and homeopathic practitioners. I often feel very frustrated seeing paients as a nurse and unable to suggest homeopathic treatment as a viable alternative and complementary therapy when I know that my patients would benefit so much from seeing a qualified homeopath.
I should have said this experience occcured whilst I was a hospital locum registrar in ENT surgery in the 1990s and what struck me particularly was the low likelihood of a placebo effect as I was operating on 'Med-head' autopilot - annoyed at being woken at 3am for a patient their GP should have been able to fix! NB 03.00 is a time associated with symptoms being worse in the clinical picture based on studies of Belladonna poisoning.