<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""> <div class=""><b class=""> Efficacy of individualized homeopathic medicines in treatment of post-stroke hemiparesis: A randomized trial<br class=""></b>Abhijit Dutta, Subhas Singh, Subhranil Saha, Prasanta Rath, Nisha Sehrawat, Navin Kumar Singh<br class=""><br class="">Background - Hemiparesis is a serious motor impairment following stroke and affecting around 65% of stroke patients. This trial attempts to study the efficacy of individualized homeopathic medicines (IHMs) in comparison with identical-looking placebos in treatment of post-stroke hemiparesis (PSH) in the mutual context of standard physiotherapy (SP).<br class="">Methods - A 3-months, open-label, randomized, placebo-controlled trial (n = 60) was conducted at the Organon of Medicine outpatient departments of National Institute of Homoeopathy, West Bengal, India. Patients were randomized to receive IHMs plus SP (n = 30) or identical-looking placebos plus SP (n = 30). Primary outcome measure was Medical Research Council (MRC) muscle strength grading scale; secondary outcomes were Stroke Impact Scale (SIS) version 2.0, Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS), and stroke recovery 0–100 visual analogue scale (VAS) scores; all measured at baseline and 3 months after intervention. Group differences and effect sizes (Cohen's d) were calculated on intention-to-treat sample.<br class="">Results - Although overall improvements were higher in the IHMs group than placebos with small to medium effect sizes, the group differences were statistically non-significant (all P>0.05, unpaired t-tests). Improvement in SIS physical problems was significantly higher in IHMs than placebos (mean difference 2.0, 95% confidence interval 0.3 to 3.8, P = 0.025, unpaired t-test). Causticum, Lachesis mutus, and Nux vomica were the most frequently prescribed medicines. No harms, unintended effects, homeopathic aggravations or any serious adverse events were reported from either group.<br class="">Conclusion - here was a small, but non-significant direction of effect favoring homeopathy against placebos in treatment of post-stroke hemiparesis.<br class=""><br class="">Disponibile il full-text su richiesta </div> </body></html>