Nineteenth-Century Homeopathic Repertories Predict Increased Urinary Excretion of Bile in Cholestasis but Not in Non-Cholestatic Infant Jaundice.

INTRODUCTION: There are two types of bilirubin: conjugated bilirubin, prevalent in cholestatic jaundice, and unconjugated bilirubin, prevalent in hematologic jaundice. Conjugated bilirubin is water soluble and is excreted in urine, whereas unconjugated bilirubin is neither water soluble nor excreted in urine. Homeopathic repertories published prior to the discovery of the two types of bilirubin in 1913 present an opportunity to test the reliability of homeopathic repertories and associated materia medica. If procedures involved in the collecting of homeopathic observations are reliable, then in repertories published prior to 1913, medicines listed for cholestatic jaundice should exhibit a stronger association with urine bile than medicines listed for hematologic jaundice. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In three repertories published prior to 1913, medicines associated with jaundice were further classified into groups labeled "Cholestatic" or "Infant, mostly hematologic". Medicines were identified as "Cholestatic" if associated with both white/clay-colored stool and liver/gallbladder symptoms. Medicines were identified as "Infant, mostly hematologic" if associated with infant jaundice without meeting criteria for the "Cholestatic" group. Controls were medicines appearing in Hahnemann's Materia Medica Pura. Each category was assessed for green urine-usually reflective of bile in urine. RESULTS: In Knerr's repertory, the "Cholestatic" group demonstrated a significantly greater association with green urine than controls (p < 0.05, Fisher's exact test), whereas the "Infant, mostly hematologic" group did not differ significantly from controls. For Lippe's and Boenninghausen's repertories, statistical significance was not demonstrated. Across repertories, the overall weighted pooled odds ratio (OR) demonstrated significance in the association between the "Cholestatic" group and green urine (OR, 2.384; 95% confidence interval, 1.234 to 4.607), whereas the "Infant, mostly hematologic" group was similar to that of controls (OR, 0.754; 95% confidence interval, 0.226 to 2.514). CONCLUSIONS: Based on the presence or absence of bile in the urine, homeopathic repertories from the 19th century can distinguish between disease processes involving conjugated bilirubin and disease processes involving unconjugated bilirubin.

Impact of physician preferences for homeopathic or conventional medicines on patients with musculoskeletal disorders: results from the EPI3-MSD cohort.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to assess the effect of physician practicing preferences (PPP) in primary care for homeopathy (Ho), CAM (Complementary and alternative medicines) with conventional medicine (Mx) or exclusively conventional medicine (CM) on patients with musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), with reference to clinical progression, drug consumption, side effects and loss of therapeutic opportunity. METHODS: The EPI3-MSD study was a nationwide observational cohort of a representative sample of general practitioners (GP) and their patients in France. Recruitment of GP was stratified by PPP, which was self-declared. Diagnoses and comorbidities were recorded by GP at inclusion. Patients completed a standardized telephone interview at inclusion, one, three and twelve months, including MSD-functional scales and medication consumption. RESULTS: 1153 MSD patients were included in the three PPP groups. Patients did not differ between groups except for chronicity of MSDs (>12 weeks), which was higher in the Ho group (62.1%) than in the CM (48.6%) and Mx groups (50.3%). The twelve-month development of specific functional scores was identical across the three groups after controlling for baseline score (p > 0.05). After adjusting for propensity scores, NSAID use over 12 months was almost half in the Ho group (OR, 0.54; 95%CI, 0.38-0.78) as compared to the CM group; no difference was found in the Mx group (OR, 0.81; 95% CI: 0.59-1.15). CONCLUSION: MSD patients seen by homeopathic physicians showed a similar clinical progression when less exposed to NSAID in comparison to patients seen in CM practice, with fewer NSAID-related adverse events and no loss of therapeutic opportunity.

[Eradication of opium smoking in Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period (1895-1945)].

Eradication of opium smoking during the Japanese colonial period is one of the most proud medical accomplishments in Taiwan. The mission was accomplished mainly due to a governmental policy of gradual prohibition in 1897 and the establishment of the Government Center Hospital for Opium Addicts in 1930. Professor Tsungming Tu, medical director of the Government Center Hospital, was responsible for the unique medical treatment of opium addiction there. The latter consisted of an immediate withdrawal of opium smoking which was partly substituted by small amounts of morphine in gradual reduction, and at the same time special pills were given to enhance the sympathetic activity also to lessen the withdrawal symptoms. By such treatment, the habit of opium smoking could often be eliminated in a few weeks. The success rate was 46%. Shortly after the World War II, the number of opium smokers in Taiwan became negligible. In early colonial period, however, there were grass roots movements as well as private efforts by physicians of Western medicine to treat opium addiction. In 1898, the Flying Phoenix Society which was a laymen organization worshipping deities began to use supernatural power to force the addicts to stop opium smoking. More than thirty thousand were enlisted and the success rate was 58%. In 1908, the enthabitual treatment in a private correction infirmary called 'Newmatou' consisted of a substitute treatment using morphine to replace opium and a gradual reduction in morphine dosage afterwards. All addicts were hospitalized until treatment goal was achieved. Among 55 addicts thus treated, 53 (96%) were ridded of opium smoking habit. The treatment method was almost identical to that employed by Professor Tu. Another physician, Dr. Ching-yue Lin, who worked at the Red Cross Hospital in Taipei, also used substitute treatment, replacing opium by heroine, and obtained a success rate of 80%. Dr. Lin published his comprehensive study on opium addiction and treatment in the Journal of the Formosan Medical Association in 1908. Therefore, Dr. Tu's enthabitual treatment seemed to be not so unique. Previous treatments employed by physicians at 'Newmatou' infirmary and by Dr. Lin at the Red Cross Hospital were strikingly similar or nearly the same. This review may help us reassess the prevailing opinion regarding the history of eliminating opium smoking in Taiwan.

Comparison of veterinary drugs and veterinary homeopathy: part 1.

For many years after its invention around 1796, homeopathy was widely used in people and later in animals. Over the intervening period (1796-2016) pharmacology emerged as a science from Materia Medica (medicinal materials) to become the mainstay of veterinary therapeutics. There remains today a much smaller, but significant, use of homeopathy by veterinary surgeons. Homeopathic products are sometimes administered when conventional drug therapies have not succeeded, but are also used as alternatives to scientifically based therapies and licensed products. The principles underlying the veterinary use of drug-based and homeopathic products are polar opposites; this provides the basis for comparison between them. This two-part review compares and contrasts the two treatment forms in respect of history, constituents, methods of preparation, known or postulated mechanisms underlying responses, the legal basis for use and scientific credibility in the 21st century. Part 1 begins with a consideration of why therapeutic products actually work or appear to do so.

Chasing the dragon: the cultural metamorphosis of opium in the United States, 1825-1935.

Many things to many people, opium has played a role in the emergence of several power bases in the United States. In turn, these bases of power have shaped what opium is for the rest of us. Allopathic medicine brought opium and its derivatives under its control around the turn of the century, promulgating "addiction theory" and addiction clinics as part of its rise to preeminence among rival forms of medicine. Opium also played a role in the U.S.'s international economic and imperialistic ascendance. When politicians began to deploy a new discourse on opium early in this century, they were able to appropriate medical rhetoric. As the politics of opium heated up, some doctors were able to exploit the emerging politically inspired discourse to generate a subtly different medical knowledge of opiates and addiction while establishing a new subdiscipline with the political support of lawmakers and state institutions.

A history of diabetes: from antiquity to discovering insulin.

This article, the first of a three-part series, gives a historical account of events for diabetes, dating from antiquity and its first recording in the Ebers Papyrus--an Egyptian document circa 1500 BC. This article describes initial thoughts that diabetes was linked to an alimentary complaint, and concludes with the discovery of it being a chronic systemic disease. It highlights the discoveries and also includes details of the failed attempts to locate the cause and identify a solution to the ancient mysterious disease which became known to all as diabetes mellitus. Early remedies and treatments are included. The article tells how for many centuries individuals suffered from the debilitating complaint with very little offered in terms of treatment or relief. Eventually the pancreas was identified as the causative organ and, some time later, animal experimentation resulted in the abstraction of the substance insulin. The article concludes with Frederick Banting and John Macleod being awarded the Nobel Prize in 1923 for their revolutionary discovery of insulin.

Homeopathy and the treatment of mental illness in the 19th century.

In the 19th century, when bleeding and purging were widely used in mainstream medicine, homeopathy was warmly embraced by some U.S. practitioners as a more humane alternative. Developed by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann, homeopathy sought to cure symptoms of disease by use of drugs that induced similar symptoms and restored the patient's "vital force." This paper describes the general principles of homeopathy and recounts specific treatments of mental illness from the homeopathic literature. It also describes the application of homeopathic principles to the institutional care of mental illness, using New York's Middletown Homeopathic Asylum for the Insane as an example.

The political process and its relationship to the psychotherapy of substance misusers: an historical perspective.

There are massive changes underway in the allocation of funds for health care in the United States which will impact upon services provided for users and misusers of intoxicating substances. Recent findings suggest that conditions in the marketplace and the development of professions have effected standards of care rather than a reasoned analysis of need and outcome. Psychologists question to what extent they will be involved in public policy issues including what is clinically and socially relevant. The goal of this paper was to determine if an historical perspective upon federal regulation of intoxicating substances (tobacco/alcohol/drugs) would enlighten the psychotherapy scientist in the pursuit of standards for service. The methodology included a review of the economic and social structure of colonial America which included tobacco plantations, breweries, and distilleries as well as a review of the formation of the federal government and political system in which men, women, and slaves were each assigned different performance standards/roles and economic rewards within the community. The implication is that potential for self-regulation and psychological development is based upon the legacy of our forefathers.

Tratamiento del dolor quirúrgico en Buenos Aires durante la primera mitad del siglo XIX / Treatment of surgical pain in Buenos Aires during the first half of the 19th. Century. Historical Research

El tratamiento del dolor en la cirugía que se practicaba en Buenos Aires en la primera mitad del siglo XIX se basaba en la administración de opio y alcohol (usualmente vino Carlón). Además de estas sustancias, se apelaba a la sujeción, la sorpresa y el engaño, métodos ya empleados durante centurias. Importante era la rapidez del cirujano, que muchas veces operaba aun sin el auxilio de las sustancias mencionadas. Las operaciones se realizaban en los hospitales de la ciudad o en los domicilios de los pacientes.

Treating surgical pain in Buenos Aires during the first half of the 19th century was based on giving the patient opium and alcohol (usually cheap red wine). Also used were centuries-old methods such as binding the patient, taking him by surprise and lying to him. An important factor was the speed of the surgeon who frequently operated even without the help of the mentioned substances. Such surgery was done in the city's hospitals or the patient's home.

O tratamento da dor da cirurgia praticada em Buenos Aires na primeira metade do século XIX tinha como base a administração de ópio e álcool (usualmente vinho Carlón). Além dessas substancias, apelava-se para a sujeição, a surpresa e o engano, métodos já utilizados durante séculos. Era importante a rapidez do cirurgião, que muitas vezes operava até mesmo sem o auxilio das substancias mencionadas. As cirurgias eram feitas nos hospitais da cidade ou domicilios dos pacientes.