Open AccessEffect of Homoeopathic treatment on Activity of Daily Living (ADL) in Knee Osteoarthritis: A prospective observational study
Author(s) -
FF Motiwala,
Tapas Kundu,
Kamlesh Bagmar,
Vijay Kakatkar,
Yogesh Dhole
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
indian journal of research in homeopathy/indian journal of research in homoeopathy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.119
H-Index - 2
eISSN - 2320-7094
pISSN - 0974-7168
DOI - 10.4103/0974-7168.188238
Subject(s) - medicine , osteoarthritis , womac , physical therapy , limiting , activities of daily living , observational study , homeopathy , alternative medicine , mechanical engineering , pathology , engineering
Objectives: To investigate the effect of individualized homoeopathic medicines in improving ADL by reducing pain, stiffness and limiting the disease progress. Materials and Methods: 131 consecutive patients with OA of knee were recruited and followed up for minimum period of twelve months. Two orthopaedic surgeons diagnosed the disease based on clinical examination of the patients. Three trained homoeopathic physicians prescribed individualized homoeopathic simillimum and the patients were evaluated for pain on WOMAC Osteoarthritis Index LK3.1 (IK) survey form measuring pain, stiffness and ADL. The pain was also measured on Numerical pain rating scale for confirmation. Result: Individualized homoeopathic medicines prescribed as per law of similia improved the mean ADL from 35.85 to 19.08 (p- 0.0001). Mean pain on WOMAC Osteoarthritis Index survey form improved from 10.50 to 5.48 (p-0.0001). The mean pain score on NRS improved from 6.34 to 3.77 (p-0.0001) and the mean morning stiffness also improved from 4.55 to 2.18 (p-0.0001). Conclusion: Homoeopathic medicines have potential to improve the ADL of OA patients by reducing pain and stiffness and limiting progress of the disease without any adverse systemic effects and can safely be employed as a comprehensive health care therapeutics