CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Homeopathy 2022; 111(01): 002-009
DOI: 10.1055/s-0041-1731313
Review Article

Case Reporting in Homeopathy—An Overview of Guidelines and Scientific Tools

1   Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Luisenstr. 57, Berlin, Germany
,
Robbert A. van Haselen
2   International Institute for Integrated Medicine, Kingston, UK
,
Lex Rutten
3   Independent Researcher, Breda, Netherlands
,
Chetna Deep Lamba
4   Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy, Janak Puri, New Delhi, India
,
Gerhard Bleul
5   Family Physician, Hünstetten, Kesselbach, Germany
,
Susanne Ulbrich-Zürni
6   Institute of Integrative Medicine, Universität Witten-Herdecke, Herdecke, Germany
› Author Affiliations
Funding This is a project of Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für Homöopathie (WissHom) and was funded by Homöopathie Stiftung des Deutschen Zentralvereins homöopathischer Ärzte and Robert Bosch Stiftung as part of the Homeopathic Guideline Project.

Abstract

Case reports have been of central importance to the development of homeopathy over the past 200 years. With a special focus on homeopathy, we give an overview on guidelines and tools that may help to improve the quality of case reports. Reporting guidelines such as CARE (Case Report), HOM-CASE (Homeopathic Clinical Case Reports), and the WissHom Documentation Standard help to improve the quality of reporting and strengthen the scientific value of a case report. Additional scientific tools such as prospective outcome assessment, prognostic factor research, cognition-based medicine, and the Modified Naranjo Criteria for Homeopathy (MONARCH) score may be helpful in improving case documentation and evaluation.

Dr. Gerhard Bleul died on June 3rd, 2020.




Publication History

Received: 29 January 2021

Accepted: 12 April 2021

Article published online:
14 September 2021

© 2021. Faculty of Homeopathy. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Georg Thieme Verlag KG
Rüdigerstraße 14, 70469 Stuttgart, Germany

 
  • References

  • 1 Feinstein AR. Clinical Judgment. Baltimore, MD: Williams & Wilkins; 1967
  • 2 Kienle GS. Why medical case reports?. Glob Adv Health Med 2012; 1: 8-9
  • 3 van Haselen R. Harvesting the benefits of clinical case reports: how to separate the chaff from the wheat?. Complement Ther Med 2015; 23: 139-140
  • 4 Gagnier JJ, Kienle G, Altman DG. et al. The CARE guidelines: consensus-based clinical case reporting guideline development. Glob Adv Health Med 2013; 2: 38-43
  • 5 Gagnier JJ, Kienle G, Altman DG. et al. The CARE guidelines: consensus-based clinical case report guideline development. J Clin Epidemiol 2014; 67: 46-51
  • 6 van Haselen RA. Homeopathic clinical case reports: development of a supplement (HOM-CASE) to the CARE clinical case reporting guideline. Complement Ther Med 2016; 25: 78-85
  • 7 Bleul G. Grundsätze und Elemente der Falldokumentation—Konsensus aus Drei Konferenzen des DZVhÄ und InHom. Kongressdokumentation ICE 8. Köthen: InHom; 2009
  • 8 Bleul G. Placeboeffekt oder arzneiwirkung—was zeigt die falldokumentation?. Allg Homoopath Ztg 2015; 260: 21-25
  • 9 Bleul G. Grundsätze der falldokumentation in der homöopathie. Allg Homoopath Ztg 2020; 265: 10-14
  • 10 Witt CM, Lüdtke R, Baur R, Willich SN. Homeopathic medical practice: long-term results of a cohort study with 3981 patients. BMC Public Health 2005; 5: 115
  • 11 Paterson C. Measuring outcomes in primary care: a patient generated measure, MYMOP, compared with the SF-36 health survey. BMJ 1996; 312: 1016-1020
  • 12 Polus BI, Kimpton AJ, Walsh MJ. Use of the measure your medical outcome profile (MYMOP2) and W-BQ12 (Well-Being) outcomes measures to evaluate chiropractic treatment: an observational study. Chiropr Man Therap 2011; 19: 7
  • 13 Thompson E, Viksveen P, Barron S. A patient reported outcome measure in homeopathic clinical practice for long-term conditions. Homeopathy 2016; 105: 309-317
  • 14 Reilly D, Mercer SW, Bikker AP, Harrison T. Outcome related to impact on daily living: preliminary validation of the ORIDL instrument. BMC Health Serv Res 2007; 7: 139
  • 15 Thompson EA, Mathie RT, Baitson ES. et al. Towards standard setting for patient-reported outcomes in the NHS homeopathic hospitals. Homeopathy 2008; 97: 114-121
  • 16 Smith DL. Goal attainment scaling as an adjunct to counseling. J Couns Psychol 1976; 23: 22-27
  • 17 Rutten L, Smedley T, Ives G. et al. Data collection during the COVID-19 pandemic: learning from experience, resulting in a Bayesian repertory. Homeopathy 2021; 110: 94-101
  • 18 Hingorani AD, van der Windt DA, Riley RD. et al. Prognosis research strategy (PROGRESS) 4: stratified medicine research. BMJ 2013; 346: e5793
  • 19 Hemingway H, Croft P, Perel P. et al. Prognosis research strategy (PROGRESS) 1: a framework for researching clinical outcomes. BMJ 2013; 346: e5595
  • 20 van Haselen R. Development of a prognostic factor prediction model in patients with musculoskeletal pain treated with homeopathy: an individual patient data meta-analysis of three randomized clinical trials. Complement Med Res 2021; 28: 46-55
  • 21 Rutten AL, Stolper CF, Lugten RF, Barthels RW. Statistical analysis of six repertory rubrics after prospective assessment applying Bayes' theorem. Homeopathy 2009; 98: 26-34
  • 22 Rutten L. Prognostic Factor Research in Homeopathy. New Delhi: Central Council for Research in Homeopathy; 2019
  • 23 Rutten L, Muraleedharan K, Shinde V, Manchanda R. What is a homoeopathic symptom, in daily practice and research?. Indian J Res Homoeopathy 2017; 11: 12-20
  • 24 Croskerry P, Norman G. Overconfidence in clinical decision making. Am J Med 2008; 121: S24-S29
  • 25 Souter K. Heuristics and bias in homeopathy. Homeopathy 2006; 95: 237-244
  • 26 Naranjo CA, Busto U, Sellers EM. et al. A method for estimating the probability of adverse drug reactions. Clin Pharmacol Ther 1981; 30: 239-245
  • 27 Lamba CD, Gupta VK, van Haselen R. et al. Evaluation of the modified Naranjo criteria for assessing causal attribution of clinical outcome to homeopathic intervention as presented in case reports. Homeopathy 2020; 109: 191-197
  • 28 Kiene H. Komplementäre Methodenlehre der Klinischen Forschung. Cognition-Based Medicine. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2001
  • 29 Kienle GS, Hamre HJ, Portalupi E, Kiene H. Improving the quality of therapeutic reports of single cases and case series in oncology—criteria and checklist. Altern Ther Health Med 2004; 10: 68-72
  • 30 Duncker K. Zur Psychologie des Produktiven Denkens. Berlin: Springer; 1935
  • 31 Kiene H, Hamre HJ, Kienle GS. In support of clinical case reports: a system of causality assessment. Glob Adv Health Med 2013; 2: 64-75
  • 32 Teut M. Scientific case studies in homoeopathy. Paper presented at: New Directions in Homeopathy Research—Advice from an Interdisciplinary Conference. Essen: KVC Verlag; 2009
  • 33 Guyatt G, Sackett D, Adachi J. et al. A clinician's guide for conducting randomized trials in individual patients. CMAJ 1988; 139: 497-503
  • 34 Baker DS. A Research Model for the Scientific Investigation of Homoeopathy [dissertation]. Limsore, Australia: Australian Centre for Complementary Medicine Education and Research, University of Queensland and Southern Cross University; 2006
  • 35 Teut M, Linde K. Scientific case research in complementary and alternative medicine—a review. Complement Ther Med 2013; 21: 388-395
  • 36 Kravitz RL, Duan N. Design and Implementation of N-of-1 Trials: A User's Guide. AHRQ Publication No. 13(14)-EHC122-EF. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; 2014
  • 37 Ulbrich-Zürni S, Teut M, Roll S, Mathie RT. The N-of-1 clinical trial: a timely research opportunity in homeopathy. Homeopathy 2018; 107: 10-18