2010, was a year in which we saw a sustained assault on natural therapies. It started in the UK, progressed to Canada and then to Australia. So, it’s very refreshing to start 2012 with some seemingly uncommon, common sense. The Swiss Government has just released one of the most comprehensive evaluations of homeopathic medicine ever written by a government. As you know, the Swiss have a long and widely-respected history of neutrality in the most difficult of circumstances. Therefore reports from this government, especially on ‘controversial subjects’ demand more attention and consideration than reports from sources one might consider more reactionary.
In summary, the Swiss report on homeopathy concludes there is:
- sufficient evidence for the preclinical effectiveness of homeopathy
- sufficient evidence for the clinical efficacy of homeopathy and
- sufficient evidence for the safety and economy of homeopathy compared with conventional treatment.
As a result, homeopathic treatment will be reimbursed by Switzerland’s national health insurance program. 50% of the Swiss population and Swiss physicians use complimentary and alternative medicine, while an amazing 85% have been demanding complimentary medicine be included in the countries health insurance program.
Even more staggering to those of us in a hopelessly biased Australia: a national referendum saw more than two-thirds of voters support the inclusion of homeopathic and select alternative medicines in Switzerland’s national health care insurance program; the field of complementary and alternative medicine has become a part of this government’s constitution (Dacey, 2009; Rist, Schwabl, 2009).
The Swiss government’s “Health Technology Assessment” on homeopathic medicine is much more comprehensive than any previous governmental report written on this subject to date.
This is very interesting as most governments are not prepared to endorse or even accept the scientific evidence that has been presented to support homeopathy. A nice summary of the findings was written by Dana Ullman from the Huffpost. You can get a copy of the Homeopathy in Health Care.
It’s worth noting that homeopathy is already included in the national; health systems of various countries around the world. We will keep you posted – in the mean time – do as us homeopaths do – achieve more with less because as we already know, less really is more 🙂
