HYBRID EVENT: You can participate in person at Valencia, Spain or Virtually from your home or work.
Valencia, Spain
September 08-10, 2025
ICTM 2025

Recommendations in the design and conduction of randomised controlled trials in human and veterinary homeopathic medicine

Petra Weiermayer, Speaker at Ethnomedicine Conferences
Scientific Society for Homeopathy, Germany
Title : Recommendations in the design and conduction of randomised controlled trials in human and veterinary homeopathic medicine

Abstract:

Background: Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are an established research method to investigate the effects of an intervention. Several recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses of RCTs with homeopathic interventions have identified shortcomings in design, conduct, analysis, and reporting of trials. Guidelines for RCTs in homeopathic medicine are lacking.
Objectives: This paper aims to fill this gap in order to enhance the quality of RCTs in the field of homeopathy.
Methods: Identification of the homeopathy-specific requirements for RCTs by reviewing literature and experts' communications. Systematization of the findings using a suitable checklist for planning, conducting, and reporting RCTs, namely the SPIRIT statement, and high-quality homeopathy RCTs as examples. Cross-checking of the created checklist with the RedHot-criteria, the PRECIS criteria, and a qualitative evaluation checklist. Consideration of the REFLECT statement and the ARRIVE Guidelines 2.0 for veterinary homeopathy.
Results: Recommendations for future implementation of RCTs in homeopathy are summarized in a checklist. Alongside, identified useful solutions to the issues encountered when designing and conducting homeopathy RCTs are presented.
Conclusions: The formulated recommendations present guidelines additional to those in the SPIRIT checklist, on how to better plan, design, conduct, and report RCTs in homeopathy.

Biography:

Dr. Petra Weiermayer studied Veterinary Medicine at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria, Bulgaria and graduated as DVM in 2007 followed by an internship at the equine clinic of the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna. She was employed as a clinical assessor at the Austrian Agency for Food and Health Safety from 2009 to 2014. Since 2012 she works as a horse practitioner in her own practice and since 2023, she is employed as scientific employee (post-Doc) at the University of Veterinary Medicine. She received her Specialist Veterinarian for Homeopathy degree awarded by the Austrian Chamber for Veterinarians in 2018. She has published more than 10 research articles in SCI(E) journals and gave lectures at different universities for human and veterinary medicine.

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