In the early 90’s I was renting from a friend in Berkeley who was a nurse. She and her husband had planned a long-needed vacation to Hawaii and their flight was early the next morning. She knocked on my door late at night saying that her 4 year old daughter had developed a severe ear infection. She was screaming and the the ear drum was extremely red and inflamed. She was also very clingy; she did not want her mother to release her for a second. Those three facts: clingy, evening onset and ear infection led to homeopathic Pulsatilla which is very commonly used for ear infections in young children. I gave her a dose and we left for the hospital. By the time she was seen by the nurses at the emergency room, her daughter was calm and quiet. The ER nurses checked and her ear looked perfectly normal, no sign of inflammation. They wondered why we were wasting their time bringing a perfectly normal healthy girl to the ER. My friend, her husband and daughter left on their vacation without further incident.
A new study published today by the prestigious Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal suggests that homeopathy is effective in providing symptomatic relief in the treatment of acute otitis media (AOM), a common type of ear infection, in young children. “For over 100 years anecdotal reports have suggested homeopathy is an effective treatment for symptoms of AOM. This is the first rigorous study finding that children receiving homeopathic medicines show a statistically significant reduction in symptoms, such as temperature, pain or irritability in the first 24 hours after treatment, compared to placebo. This is a time period before antibiotics are indicated or expected to take effect,” said Jennifer Jacobs, MD, MPH, the study’s principal investigator and clinical assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, at the University of Washington in Seattle. “As with the treatment of colds and flu, the best first line of therapy for children with AOM should be to enhance the body’s natural defenses. Homeopathy should be considered for symptomatic relief during the first three days of the illness, while waiting for the infection to resolve on its own” added Dr. Jacobs. “Further studies will be done to investigate whether homeopathy can also speed up the healing process.”
“Bacterial resistance to administered antibiotics and their overuse are significant medical issues. In the case of ear infections, more and more pediatricians are now employing the so-called ‘watchful waiting’ approach. If the infection doesn’t clear up in a few days, then antibiotics are used. This study points out that healthcare professionals and parents now have a new, adjunctive approach to reduce symptoms during the ‘watchful waiting period,” said Joanne Hartley Allport, MD, MPH, of San Rafael, California. She is a board certified pediatrician who was formerly employed in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the NIH and now specializes in advising physicians on issues related to integration of complementary and alternative medicine into their practices. The study notes:
- Review articles conclude that a 10 day course of antibiotics provides only marginal benefits and that 70%-90% of all AOM episodes resolve spontaneously
- Acute otitis media (AOM) is the most common illness in children for which physicians are consulted, with an estimated 24.5 million visits per year
- 55% of children less than a year of age in the US have received antibiotic treatments
- 3.4% of the US population used homeopathy in 1997, a five-fold increase since 1990
- Homeopathic treatment may provide relief from symptoms associated with AOM