Similia Vol 25 No 1 – June 2013

Author: David Levy

Abstract

That the theme of this issue is Back to Basics is a critical reminder of the problems faced by the Australian homeopathic community. This year, 2013, its practitioners may face political marginalisation and economic asphyxiation. The right of Australian consumers to choose and be rebated for homeopathy may be restricted by the National Health and Medical Research Council, a commission of the Australian Federal Government, as well as by the actions of the Friends of Science in Medicine.

Practitioners at the coalface practise a combination of empirical and evidence-based homeopathy. The results presented in this paper are part of a qualitative research study exploring the reasoning and decision-making practices of Australian homeopaths. After gaining ethical approval from the University of Sydney in 2009, I observed, interviewed and recorded twelve participants in urban and regional Australia (2009-2012). Using  interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to explore and understand the participants’ clinical reasoning behaviours and experiences, this paper suggests why homeopaths need to go back to basics. Their experiences strongly suggest the need for rigorous reproducible methods for the benefit of patients and for the sustainability of homeopathy.

Keywords: homeopathy, clinical reasoning, empiricism, evidence, evidence-based medicine.