Scientific evidence of the homeopathic epistemological model
Marcus Zulian Teixeira
ABSTRACT Homeopathy is based on principles and a system of knowledge different from the ones supporting
the conventional biomedical model: this epistemological conflict is the underlying reason
explaining why homeopathy is so difficult to accept by present-day scientific reason. To legitimize
homeopathy according to the standards of the latter, research must confirm the validity of its
basic assumptions: principle of therapeutic similitude, trials of medicines on healthy individuals,
individualized prescriptions and use of high dilutions. Correspondingly, basic research must
supply experimental data and models to substantiate the basic assumptions, whilst clinical trials
aim at confirming the efficacy and effectiveness of homeopathy in the treatment of disease. This
article discusses the epistemological model of homeopathy relating its basic assumptions with
data resulting from different fields of modern experimental research and supporting its
therapeutic use on the outcomes of available clinical trials. In this regard, the principle of
individualization of treatment is the sine qua non condition to make therapeutic similitude
operative and consequently for homeopathic treatment to exhibit clinical efficacy and
effectiveness.
Keywords: Foundations of homeopathy; Medical education; Law of similar; Pharmacodynamic
action of homeopathic remedies; Biomedical research.