Challenges and Solutions for Conducting Clinical Trials on Homeopathy for Major Depression and Cocaine/Crack Use Disorder

The development of clinical trials on homeopathic treatment for depression has been challenging in different settings. Difficulties in gathering enough participants, lack of clinical-pharmaceutical standards in classical (individualized) homeopathy, and scarce funding are some of the problems that hinder Randomized Clinical Trials (RCTs) with large samples and favor N-of-1 trials as a possible path for assessing the effectiveness of homeopathic strategies to help patients undergoing a depressive episode.

Crack/cocaine use disorder is a significant public health concern in Brazil, exhibiting parallels with heroin/opioid addiction in the United States. Previous results showed a significant decrease in cocaine-using days among cocaine users treated with homeopathic fifty-millesimal (LM/Q) potencies of Opium and Erythroxylum coca, compared with placebo. However, the low adhesion of the participants might have biased the results. As a matter of fact, low adherence of crack-cocaine users to treatment is a trend observed in clinical trials and practice.

At HRI London 2023, we would like to present and discuss the protocols of N-of-1 studies on classical homeopathy for major depressive disorder and a new RCT assessing Opium and Erythroxylum coca on cocaine use disorder, which are currently being performed by our team in Brazil.

Keywords: Clinical trials, major depression, addiction, cocaine

Publication History

Article published online:
30 January 2024