Research Updates - Homeopathy - Initiative to Promote Research in ...

Volume 2, Issue: 6 – 8 (June-Aug 2013) | Page: 44 – 57
ISSN 2278 4500
A research awareness e-Journal by
Chief Editor
Dr. Saurav Arora
Editorial Advisory Board
Dr. José Eizayaga (Argentina)
Dr. Silvia Waisse (Brazil)
Dr. Leoni Bonamin (Brazil)
Dr. Shivang Swaminarayan (India)
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Table of Contents
Editorial ................................................................................................................................... 45
Database of Scientific Publications in Homeopathy ......................................................... 46
Specialised databases of the Karl and Veronica Carstens-Stiftung ............................... 48
Immunomodulatory drugs (natalizumab), worsening of multiple sclerosis, rebound
effect and similitude - Homeopathy 2013 ......................................................................... 56
Read Online at www.audesapere.in/ejournal 44

Editorial
Dear Reader,
The up gradation process for web portal of Initiative to Promote Research in Homoeopathy
was started few weeks back, and till date majority of the work has been completed. Certain
changes were adopted, and the new interface is empowered with features like:
Better look and adaptability: The New Graphic User Interface (GUI)
Easier search
Easy access from mobile, hand held devices and PDAs
Better and quick social networking sharing options
New and upgraded Database of Scientific Publications in Homeopathy (DSPH)
The second phase of up grading process will keep on running in the background, keeping
website and contents fully accessible. In the meantime, you are kindly requested to report bugs
and comments at www.audesapere.in/contact
The current issue presents an article “Specialised databases of the Karl and Veronica Carstens-
Stiftung” by Dr. Jürgen Clausen, Karl und Veronica Carstens-Stiftung, Germany. This article will
give you one spot information regarding various homeopathic databases by Karl and Veronica
Carstens-Stiftung. The article enlist brief about important and robust homeopathic databases
like The CAM-Quest quick search, CAM-Quest Expert Search, The VetCR database, The
HomBRex database and The CORE-Hom database. I hope that readers will now have wide
options to search hundreds of homeopathic studies at one place.
This issue also features a short excerpt of recently published paper “Immunomodulatory drugs
(natalizumab), worsening of multiple sclerosis, rebound effect and similitude” by Dr. Marcus
Zulian Teixeira, wherein he has discussed regarding role of Natalizumab in patients with active
multiple sclerosis (MS), and worsening of MS as a consequence of the rebound effect and
principle of similitude.
I hope you like the new look and content of www.audesapere.in and come forward to
collaborate and promote scientific research in homeopathy.
Saurav Arora
Read Online at www.audesapere.in/ejournal 45

Database of Scientific Publications in Homeopathy
Major changes has been done in DSPH which is a fully dedicated bibliographic indexing service,
consisting of peer reviewed scientific publications. The studies are placed according to the
type. During the first upgrade process 452 studies were included in the database. The majority
of the studies are from journal Homeopathy (2002-2013), International Journal of High
Dilution Research (2008-2013) and few other journals. The details are as follows:
a. Fundamental Research: 162 studies
b. Clinical Research: 136 studies
c. Drug Proving: 10 studies
d. Drug Standardization: 10 studies
e. Veterinary Research: 29 studies
f. Agro Homeopathy: 32 studies
g. Editorials: 26 studies
h. Primary Health Care: 13 studies
i. Surveys: 34 studies
DSPH: Total Articles included in Phase I
Primary Health Care, 13 Surveys, 34
Editorial, 26
Agro Homeopathy,
32
Fundamental, 162
Veterinary, 29
Drug Standardization, 10
Drug Proving, 10
Clinical, 136
Total Studies: 452
Read Online at www.audesapere.in/ejournal 46

You may search study keyword or title via Search Box given in each section:
You may also sort every column (Year, Name of Journal, Volume, Title, Model, Condition and
Link) in ascending or descending order:
During the second and subsequent phases, more number of studies from journals will be
included in the database.
Read Online at www.audesapere.in/ejournal 47

Specialised databases of the Karl and Veronica Carstens-Stiftung
Dr. Jürgen Clausen, Dr. Henning Albrecht
Karl und Veronica Carstens-Stiftung, Am Deimelsberg 36, 45276 Essen, Germany
Cite it as: Jürgen Clausen, Henning Albrecht. Specialised databases of the Karl and
Veronica Carstens-Stiftung. Research Updates-Homeopathy 2013;2(6-8):48-55. ISSN:
2278 4500
1. Introduction
In evidence-based medicine, a
systematic review of several
randomized and controlled clinical
trials, including a meta-analysis of the
summarized data, represents the highest
grade of evidence with regard to a given
medicinal intervention. The compilation
of such a systematic review is preceded
by a rigorous literature search for
appropriate publications. In
conventional medicine, several
specialised databases exist and
systematic reviewers usually resort to
the free-of-charge meta-database
PubMed
(www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed) of the
National Library of Medicine of the
United States of America or to other
databases with costs (e.g.EMBASE
(http://www.elsevier.com/onlinetools/embase/about),
OVID
(www.OVID.com),
DIMDI
(http://www.dimdi.de/static/de/db/in
dex.htm). The problem for review
authors in the field of complementary
and alternative medicine (CAM) is that
the conventional databases usually only
contain a small fraction of relevant
studies [4, 15]. This is most particularly
due to the fact that many of these CAM
studies are published without having
passed the so called “peer-review
process” - an approach to maintain
standards of quality and to ensure the
credibility of scientific publications.
Publications in books, conference
proceedings or reports are not covered
by conventional databases. Moreover,
several CAM studies are published in
languages other than English, French or
Spanish, which may be an additional
obstacle for inclusion in conventional
databases.
These problems were identified by the
Karl und Veronica Carstens-Stiftung and
therefore several databases, meeting
different needs, were established by this
foundation over the years. These
databases provide the possibility to
perform rigorous literature searches in
the field of CAM with main focus on
homeopathy.
The Karl and Veronica Carstens-Stifung
is the leading foundation in Europe
promoting naturopathy and
homeopathy. The foundation's objective
is to create the scientific bases for
integrating naturopathy and
homeopathy into academic medicine
and university teaching.
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In the top menu bar of the Karl and
Veronica Carstens-Stiftung website
(http://www.carstens-stiftung.de/) there
is an option labelled “Service” with a
sub-heading
labeled
“Freie Datenbanken” (“Free databases”),
leading the visitor directly to a brief
description (in German) of the currently
available databases, including CAM-
Quest, HomBRex, VetCR, and CORE-
Hom. These abbreviations are further
explained in the text below. All these
databases are free of charge. However,
the publication of database contents by
third persons (e.g., data transfer to a
different database which charges or
which envisions profit in some other
manner) is not permitted without
explicit approval of the Karl und
Veronica Carstens-Stiftung.
2. The CAM-Quest database
In the CAM-Quest database, the user can
easily inquire about information on CAM
therapies for specific diseases. The
database is not limited to homeopathy
and naturopathy, but comprises all
therapeutic approaches in the field of
CAM, including e.g. Ayurveda and
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).
CAM-Quest provides two different ways
to retrieve information: the CAM-Quest
Quick Search and the CAM-Quest Expert
Search.
The CAM-Quest Quick Search is
extremely user-friendly. The search
results are limited to 16 therapeutic
areas and 9 therapeutic approaches (in
summary about 5000 publications);
despite these limits, the most important
therapies and diseases are included. The
menu system allows the user to select
therapies, general therapeutic areas, and
specific diseases by simply clicking on
the corresponding terms. The search
results are displayed as a list with
bibliographical information about the
respective publications on the selected
subject matter. The search results may
be filtered by type of publication (e.g.
review or clinical study) or by
publication with/without abstract.
The CAM-Quest Quick Search is available
in English, French, German and Dutch.
For those who are interested in further
information about less common
therapeutic methods or diseases, CAM-
Quest provides an Expert Search. This
allows detailed search requests by key
word, author, full text or journal. The
Expert Search contains about 16000
data sets and among these about 10000
case reports of veterinary and human
homeopathy.
The Expert Search is available in English
and German. Using the expert search,
however, requires a certain amount of
training.
The aim of CAM-Quest is to show that
there is a large number of publications
on CAM, covering a variety of therapies
and diseases. Apart from physicians and
other healthcare professionals, CAM-
Quest® can be used for searching for
clinical research in CAM by researchers,
students, librarians, pharmacists,
journalists, lobbyists, stakeholders and
everybody else with an interest in CAM.
It provides a solid base for discussions
with the political sector or with health
49

insurers when arguments and numbers
are needed regarding the question as to
whether specified research in CAM
exists or not. It is also a practical tool for
all patients wishing to find out whether
there are any complementary
therapeutic options for their health
problems. Patients can print their search
results and discuss them with their
physicians. Furthermore, CAM-Quest is
helpful for physicians when searching
for additional therapeutic treatments.
Access to CAM-Quest is free of charge
and no registration is necessary.
3. The VetCR database
The VetCR (Veterinary Clinical
Research) database provides detailed
information on clinical studies in
veterinary homeopathy. Besides
bibliographical data, this database
enables the user to search for diseases,
study design and species. The search
results contain a description of the exact
dosages of the homeopathic remedies,
and the controls used, plus brief
summaries of the study results. The
majority of studies deal with farm
animals such as cattle or pigs.
Companion animals comprise only a
minor proportion of the literature.
Besides clinical studies, a small number
of recent case reports on homeopathic
treatment of animals is included in
VetCR.
The interface is in English. The database
comprises about 300 entries. It is free of
charge without registration. The
database is particularly directed at
veterinarians planning a study or
searching for additional therapeutic
options.
4. The HomBRex database
HomBRex is the abbreviation for
"Homeopathy Basic Research
experiments." The database contains all
experiments performed within the
context of basic research in
homeopathy. In contrast to the VetCR
and CORE-Hom databases, the HomBRex
database particularly focuses on plants,
parts of plants, and microorganisms like
fungi and bacteria as model systems,
instead of diseased humans or animals.
However, healthy humans and animals
or cell lines from these two groups are
included when used as model systems.
This is, for instance, in the context of
drug provings (or in modern terms:
homeopathic pathogenetic trials) in
humans that at least observe one
objective parameter (e.g., blood
pressure). Moreover, the HomBRex
database contains many experiments
studying potencies and high potencies
without any biological model system,
but using physical and chemical
techniques in order to determine
whether there are differences between
potencies and non-potentised dilutions
or solvents.
The HomBRex database allows one to
search for bibliographical data, as well
as providing detailed information on the
applied organism, research field and the
homeopathic remedy under study. The
presented results contain additional
information on application of high
potencies (Yes / No) and study design.
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HomBRex contains about 1800
experiments. The interface is in English
and use of the database is free of charge
after (cost-free) registration.
The HomBRex database supports
scientists in planning new studies or to
reproduce experiments from other
groups. The database allows the
researcher to verify which biological
models have proven valuable and / or
reproducible in homeopathy basic
research, and which have not. A
comparison with previous studies may
help to resolve, or to avoid from the
outset, any existing issues within the
researcher’s own experiments.
The database will appeal mainly to
scientists and physicians who are
interested in basic research.
5. The CORE-Hom database
The CORE-Hom database complements
the VetCR database, focusing on clinical
research in homeopathy in human
medicine. CORE-Hom is the abbreviation
for “Clinical Outcome REsearch in
Homeopathy”.
Observational studies, randomised, and
non-randomised controlled clinical
trials are included in this database. The
database enables searching by
bibliographical data and by one or more
of several categories of detailed
information, e.g. disease, remedy, study
design and quality. Brief summaries of
the study results are included in the
search results obtained. The data entries
also contain abstracts of the
publications, if available. A special
feature is the possibility of limiting the
search results by quality criteria
established in the major review articles
in homeopathy [1-3].
Another special feature is the grouping
of publications in the search results of
the CORE-Hom database. If several
publications belong to the same large
cohort study, for example, or if they are
re-analyses or secondary publications of
older publications, such attributes will
be clearly visible. Another category
indicates in which review articles or
meta-analyses the individual studies
were assessed.
So far, CORE-Hom contains about 800
publications. The CORE-Hom database is
still under construction. It can already
be used, but some studies have not yet
been indexed completely, or their
indexing is as yet quite rudimentary.
Also, some of the above-mentioned
special features have not yet been
implemented, or have been only
partially implemented to date. The
database will be a valuable asset for
scientists, health professionals and
patients in future, since the main results
of each study are indicated as part of the
search results.
The interface of CORE-Hom is in English.
Access to CORE-Hom is free after costfree
registration.
6. Conclusion
Table 1 contains an overview of the core
information comprising each of the four
databases described above. Based on
these databases, several papers have
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already been published, mostly in peerreviewed
journals [5-15]. These
publications are general articles
introducing the respective databases, as
well as important review articles
attempting to clarify specific scientific
issues by means of the database
contents.
All databases are maintained
continuously: new publications are
added and errors in the existing records
are corrected. Users of the databases are
encouraged to inform the Karl and
Veronica Carstens-Stiftung about any
publications missing from the databases
or any errors of content they might
identify.
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Table 1: Comparative overview on the databases of the Karl and Veronica Carstens-Stiftung
Name Topic Free access Registration
required
Languages
CAM-Quest Quick CAM in general Yes No German, English,
Search
Dutch, French
Approx.
Publications Web address
number of
data sets
5000 Therapies: http://www.camquest.org/suche/therapien/
Diseases: http://www.camquest.org/suche/krankheiten/
CAM-Quest Expert CAM in general Yes No German, English 1 16000 http://expert.cam-quest.org:81/
Search
VetCR Studies of Yes No English 300 [11-15] http://www.carstensstiftung.de/clinresvet/index.php
veterinary
homeopathy
HomBRex Basic research Yes Yes English 1800 [5-10] http://www.carstensstiftung.de/hombrex/
in homeopathy
CORE-Hom 1 Studies of
human
homeopathy
1 under construction
Yes Yes English 800 www.carstens-stiftung.de/corehom
A similar version of this article has been previously released in Reckweg Journal 8(1), 2013, pp. 21 - 23
53

Reference list
1. M. E. Dean (2004) The Trials of
Homeopathy, KVC-Verlag, Essen,
Germany.
2. K. Linde, N. Clausius, G. Ramirez, D.
Melchart, F. Eitel, L. V. Hedges, and W.
B. Jonas (1997) Are the clinical
effects of homoeopathy placebo
effects Lancet 350(9081), pp. 834-
843.
3. A. Shang, K. Huwiler-Muntener, L.
Nartey, P. Juni, S. Dorig, J. A. Sterne, D.
Pewsner, and M. Egger (2005) Are the
clinical effects of homoeopathy placebo
effects Comparative study of placebocontrolled
trials of homoeopathy and
allopathy. Lancet 366(9487), pp. 726-
732.
4. R. T. Mathie, D. Hacke, J. Clausen, T.
Nicolai, D. S. Riley and P. Fisher (2013)
Randomised controlled trials of
homeopathy in humans: characterising
the research journal literature for
systematic review. Homeopathy
102(1), pp. 3-24
5. J. Clausen, R. Van Wijk, and H. Albrecht
(2011) Review of the use of high
potencies in basic research on
homeopathy. Homeopathy 100(4), pp.
288-292.
6. J. Clausen, R. Van Wijk, and H. Albrecht
(2010) Infection models in basic
research on homeopathy. Homeopathy
99(4), pp. 263-270.
7. R. Van Wijk, J. Clausen, and H. Albrecht
(2009). The rat in basic therapeutic
research in homeopathy. Homeopathy
98(4), pp. 280-286.
8. R. Van Wijk and H. Albrecht (2007)
Classification of systems and methods
used in biological basic research on
homeopathy. Homeopathy 96(4), pp.
247-251.
9. R. Van Wijk and H. Albrecht (2007)
Proving and therapeutic experiments
in the HomBRex basic homeopathy
research database. Homeopathy 96(4),
pp. 252-257.
10. H. Albrecht, R. Van Wijk, and S. Dittloff
(2002) A new database on basic
research in homeopathy.
Homeopathy 91(3), pp. 162-165.
11. J. Clausen, H. Albrecht, and R. T. Mathie
(2013) Veterinary Clinical Research
Database for Homeopathy: Placebo-
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Controlled Trials. Complement Ther
Med. 21(2), pp. 115-20.
12. J. Clausen and H. Albrecht (2010)
Database on veterinary clinical
research in homeopathy.
Homeopathy 99(3), pp. 189-191.
13. J. Clausen (2010). Veterinary Clinical
Research Database for Homeopathy.
Homeopathy Research Institute
Newsletter 2010.
http://homeoinst.org/sites/default/files/
newsletters/HRI_Newsletter10_Autumn20
10.pdf
14. R.T. Mathie, D. Hacke, J. Clausen (2012).
Randomised controlled trials of
veterinary homeopathy:
characterising the peer-reviewed
research literature for systematic
review. Homeopathy 101(4), pp. 196-
203.
15. R.T. Mathie, D. Hacke, J. Clausen (2013).
Systematic review, with meta-analysis,
of randomised placebo-controlled
trials of veterinary homeopathy. Vet
Rec. submitted.
55

Immunomodulatory drugs (natalizumab), worsening of multiple sclerosis,
rebound effect and similitude - Homeopathy 2013
Marcus Zulian Teixeira
www.newhomeopathicmedicines.com
Has just been published in the British journal
Homeopathy the article titled
“Immunomodulatory drugs (natalizumab),
worsening of multiple sclerosis, rebound
effect and similitude”, increasing the
scientific basis of the principle of
homeopathic healing before the modern
pharmacology:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2387
0382
According to this review, current hypotheses
maintain that the main event in the
pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS) is the
activation of peripheral autoreactive T
lymphocytes, which after multiply and cross
the blood-brain barrier trigger a cascade of
inflammatory events in the CNS, culminating
in demyelination and axonal damage of
neurons. The migration of these leukocytes
through this barrier requires interaction with
adhesion molecules expressed on the surface
of cells, such as selectins, integrins and their
endothelial receptors. Natalizumab is a
humanized monoclonal antibody selective
inhibitor of these adhesion molecules that
prevents the migration of leukocytes to the
SNC, reducing the frequency of outbreaks, the
number of brain injury and disease
progression.
Despite the beneficial primary effects of this
enantiopathic treatment, experimental and
observational studies show a worsening in
the basal activity of the MS after the
suspension of natalizumab (“rebound effect”
or “immune reconstitution inflammatory
syndrome without progressive multifocal
leukoencephalopathy”), with intense
exacerbation of symptoms, an increase in the
number and/or size of demyelinating lesions
and fatal disease progression.
As well as observed with natalizumab,
fingolimod and tumor necrosis factor
antagonists drugs (infliximab, adalimumab,
etanercept), it is worth noting that recent
studies have shown a high frequency and
intensity of “rebound effect” or “paradoxical
reaction” after the suspension of other
immunomodulators drugs used in other
diseases, warning of the risks of this new
class of drugs (biological response
modifiers), that presents palliative
(antagonistic or enantiopathic) action more
56

effective than other drugs. This finding is
based on an intrinsic property to the
“rebound phenomenon” and the “principle of
similitude”, in which the magnitude of the
secondary action of the organism is directly
proportional to the intensity of the primary
action of the drug.
With this review, we expanded on hundreds
of scientific papers the pharmacological basis
of this line of research we've seen developing
for more than 15 years, demonstrating the
universality of “natural law” of homeopathic
cure.
57