Report on Workshop on Drug Validation in Homeopathy with Dr

Lex RuttenA report by

Dr Amrit KalsiMD(Hom)

Chief Medical Officer(H)

Organisers & ObjectivesThe workshop was organized by Central Council Of Research in Homeopathy , Ministry of AYUSH, Govt. of India,on 16 th and 17th February, 2015 in AYUSH auditorium at CCRH headquarters, Janakpuri. There were around 70 delegates. Two doctors from our department were nominated to attend the workshop Dr. Amrit Kalsi, CMO and Dr. Anjali Miglani, SMO. This workshop with Dr Lex Rutten, M.D., (Nehterlands) focused on the importance of validation of homeopathic drugs in the light of modern statistical tools. It was to sensitize the audience about drug validation through latest statistical tools and techniques.

After the felicitations and lamp lighting welcome address was given by Dr RK Manchanda, Director General,CCRH followed by keynote address by Padamshree Dr. V K Gupta . The chief guest , Shri A. K. Ganeriwala, Joint secretary (AYUSH) appreciated the efforts of the Homoeopathic world for continued medical education and updating their knowledge through such workshops. The audience was addressed by Dr Lex Rutten who gave a brief about his commendable work in drug validation and the topics he would cover during the workshop. Dr Anil Khurana , Deputy Director(H) CCRH gave the vote of thanks.

Dr Lex Rutten, M.D. (Netherlands)Born 1950. Medical doctor since 1977,

general practitioner 1978-1983, homeopathic doctor since 1979, since 1983 homeopathic consultant. Studied homeopathy in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Greece, UK. Additional training in statistics and diagnosis/prognosis research.

Main research topic: personal characteristics as prognostic factors, the relationship between a characteristic and effect of a specific medicine.

Few of his Research articles discussed in workshop Rutten LA, Stolper EC. Complementary alternative

medicine, plausibility and statistics. Eur J Intern Med. 2014 Jul 30. pii: S0953-6205(14)00204-0. doi: 10.1016/j.ejim.2014.07.004. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 25085058.

Rutten LA. The importance of case histories for accepting and improving homeopathy. Complement Ther Med. 2013 Dec;21(6):565-70. doi: 10.1016/j.ctim.2013.10.001. PubMed PMID:24280462

Rutten LA, Frei H. Frequently occurring polar symptoms assessed by successful cases. Homeopathy. 2012 Apr;101(2):103-11. PubMed PMID: 22487370

Rutten AL, Frei H. Opposite repertory-rubrics in Bayesian perspective. Homeopathy. 2010 Apr;99(2):113-8. PubMed PMID: 20471614

Rutten AL. How can we change beliefs? A Bayesian perspective. Homeopathy. 2008 Oct;97(4):214-9. PubMed PMID: 19371571.

Rutten AL, Stolper CF, Lugten RF, Barthels RW. New repertory, new considerations. Homeopathy. 2008 Jan;97(1):16-21. PubMed PMID: 18194761.

Rutten AL. Bayesian homeopathy: talking normal again. Homeopathy. 2007 Apr;96(2):120-4. Review. PubMed PMID: 17437940.

Rutten AL, Stolper CF, Lugten RF, Barthels RW. A Bayesian perspective on the reliability of homeopathic repertories. Homeopathy. 2006 Apr;95(2):88-93. PubMed PMID: 16569624.

Rutten AL, Stolper CF, Lugten RF, Barthels RW. Repertory and the symptom loquacity: some results from a pilot study on likelihood ratio. Homeopathy. 2004 Oct;93(4):190-2. PubMed PMID: 15532697.

Rutten AL, Stolper CF, Lugten RF, Barthels RW. Repertory and likelihood ratio: time for structural changes. Homeopathy. 2004 Jul;93(3):120-4. Review. PubMed PMID: 15287430.

Topics coveredWith reference to his papers the following topics were covered:•Assessment of homeopathic symptoms: prognostic factor research•Statistics and homeopathy•article ‘Data collection, Treat every variable as a treasure•Assessment of keynote symptoms•New repertory, new considerations•Assessment of Polar Symptoms•A Bayesian perspective on the reliability of homeopathic repertories. •Repertory and likelihood ratio: time for structural changes.

He proposed Personalised medicine sounds familiar to homeopathic materia medica and repertories . These could be considered as prognostic factors. At the moment, knowledge about ‘personalised homeopathy’,stored in our materia medica and repertories, is based onexpert opinion. It therefore seems logical to apply the novel concepts of prognosis research to homeopathy. In homeopathy, repertorisation of the characteristics of the patient constitutes a prognostic model:a table with the selected characteristics and a number of medicines to be considered based on the combination of characteristics.Prognosis research opens the way to hypothesis-free studies to discover relevant prognostic factors. Such studies investigate the association of large numbers of personal characteristics or genetic variants with outcome.

Further he said Such a prognostic model could be the basis of an expert system which would enable patients or doctors with little knowledge of homeopathy to differentiate between several homeopathic medicines. He further said thousands of shared successful cases render misleading information because they are not properly analysed. A symptom seen in a successful case is hitherto regarded an indication for the prescribed medicine, but Bayes’ theorem tells us that this is a mistake: the prevalence of the symptom should be higher in the ‐population that responds well to the medicine than in the remainder of the population.He also emphasized that the importance of data collection for homeopathy is obvious, so we should try to speed up the process of software development for homeopathic data collection.

THANKSDr Amrit Kalsi

MD(Hom)Chief Medical Officer(H)

Dte. Of AYUSH, Govt of NCT of Delhi