This research paper will present literature regarding homeopathy and pain. Included in the presentation will be a general discussion of homeopathy, homeopathy as an alternative, homeopathy and the professional, research studies on homeopathy, and research studies on homeopathy and pain.
Samuel Hahnemann, a German physician in the 1700s, began his career in medicine and after becoming disillusioned, he devoted his time to the formulation of a system he called homeopathy (Rampes & Davidson, 1997, p. 1450). He believed that disease symptoms, including pain, can be cured with very small amounts of a substance that produces a similar symptom, this was the law of similars. Homeopathy as a term is derived from the Greek words homoios, meaning similar, and pathos, meaning suffering or disease. Homeopathy incorporates the law of infinitesimals, which states that the smaller dose results in a more powerful effect. Hahnemann believed that a disease represented a bodily disturbance, the body has the ability to heal itself, and only a very small stimulus is necessary to initiate the healing process. Hahnemann and others administered homeopathic substances (from herbs, minerals, and other substances) to themselves and other healthy people, and kept records of observations which were put into reference books called materia medica. Rather than scientific testing of the substances, homeopathic "provings" which took place during the 1800s and 1900s are the basis for inclusion in the Homeopathic Pharmacopeia (Barrett, 1998, p. 17).
Homeopathic remedies are made by taking a substance and diluting it with nine or ninety-nine parts of distilled water or alcohol. If the substance is insoluble, it is ground and pulverized into minute proportions with powered lactose. The diluted medicine is then diluted repeatedly until a desired concentration is reached. A dilution of 1 to 10 is designated by a Roman numeral X, for example, 1X equals 1/10, 3X ...