Following the debate: homeopathy and anthroposophic medicine

Occasionally carefully researched, often misrepresented, homeopathy is never far from the limelight. Co-ordinated challenges to the sector are being countered by increasingly active campaigns from those who use and benefit from the medicines and therapies. Read on for our triannual round up of some of the key stories about homeopathy  and anthroposophic medicine that have cropped up in the European media in recent months….

• High Court challenge to National Health Service (UK):  Following the High Court decision to reject British Homeopathic Association’s challenge to the NHS decision to withdraw routine funding for homeopathy, the patients continue to fight back with compelling positive stories from homeopathy patients; the media battle continued with media coverage of the decision by Bristol’s clinical commissioning group to stop offering publicly-funded homeopathy except in exceptional circumstances (and here, here, here and here).

• Steiner under attack – IVAA and Société Anthroposophique en France have issued a robust correction of negative bias and factual errors to articles published in Le Monde Diplomatique  (France) and La Libre (Belgium) that criticise the influence of Steiner on education, health, agriculture and finance.

• Euroscience Open Forum, Toulouse, France – one presentation explored the topic ‘Why do people choose to use homeopathic remedies despite the lack of robust evidence?’ while another discussed the need for robust evidence to inform consumer choice. Built around the EASAC paper on homeopathy, widely discredited by the homeopathy community, this session nevertheless attracted media coverage in Germany.

• Australian report: the Release the First Report campaign has attracted over 13,000 signatures from over 90 different countries; the petition calls for the release of the first report, supressed in favour of the negative and discredited report. Add your voice to the campaign. Media coverage continues on this topic in Europe, with a comprehensive rebuttal to the critics in  Alternative Santé (France) and two articles in Le Monde (and here). The Italian homeopathic doctors also report on the manipulation of homeopathy by the Australian report drawing parallels with the  Cochrane scandal.

• Homöopathie verstehen (Austria): More than 300,000 people have been touched by the new campaign in Austria to inform the public about homeopathy.

• Dr Peter Fisher: The sad and sudden death of Dr Peter Fisher, President of the Faculty of Homeopathy (UK) and Director of Research at the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine (formerly Royal London Homeopathic Hospital) also received substantial coverage in all the major newspapers in the UK (here and here and here), in the BMJ and elsewhere.

• Homöopathie. Natürlich. Meine Entscheidung (Homeopathy. Naturally. My choice) – a high profile campaign in Germany is gathering momentum in the media and  on social media. In parallel, a new blog in Germany follows stories on homeopathy in the media and comments on their accuracy.

• Pharmacy congress: International Pharmaceutical Federation's World Congress of Pharmacy discussed the motion ‘Pharmacists should not sell or dispense homeopathic products’. Over 60% of the audience voted in favour of the motion. Brazilian pharmacists sought to defend homeopathy. The debate was reported in the European and US media.

• Degree in Homeopathy: while The Faculty of Medicine of Lille University has suspended its degree course in homeopathy, amidst media coverage in France (here and here) the University of Strasbourg confirmed it will continue to teach the subject.

• German patients want to choose their own treatment: A new survey carried out by Deutsche Finanz-Service Institut GmbH reports that patients want choice of therapy (see here or here in English) and believe they should be able to opt in favour of homeopathy. German media (here and here) also reports on an interview with the German Health Minister, who says that although he does not accept the evidence for homeopathy, he supports freedom of choice by patients.

• ECHAMP letter to Spanish President: ECHAMP wrote an open letter to His Excellency Dr. Pedro Sánchez, the President of the Government of Spain, concerning the registration process in Spain, in response to public statements against homeopathy by the the Spanish Health Minister, Carmen Montón, who has since resigned.