Anthroposophic medications are prescribed in 56 countries. A recently published study (see box) now covers the clinical outcomes in patients prescribed such medicines for chronic diseases.

The prospective cohort study involved 110 medical practices in Germany with 665 consecutive outpatients aged 1–71 years, treated for mental, respiratory, musculoskeletal, neurological, genitourinary, and other chronic diseases.

During the first six months, an average of 1.5 medications per patient was used, in total 652 different medications, the origins of which were mineral (8.0%), botanical (39.0%), zoological (7.2%), chemically defined (13.0%), and mixed (33.0%). From baseline to six-month follow-up, all outcomes improved significantly in disease score, symptom score, physical component summary and mental component summary. All improvements were maintained at 12-month follow-up. Improvements were similar in adult men and women, in children, and in patients not using adjunctive therapies. The study shows that outpatients using anthroposophic medications for chronic disease had long-term reduction of disease severity and improvement of quality of life.