Health concludes that homeopathy is a placebo and can be dangerous to health

BarcelonaThe Spanish Agency of Medicines (AEMPS) published this Tuesday a report on homeopathy that concludes "categorically" that there is no scientific evidence to support its efficacy and that its effects are "similar to placebo". If, in addition, an approved medical treatment for serious or chronic pathologies is replaced or abandoned, the report indicates that it can "endanger" people's health.

The AEMPS has analyzed 64 reports on homeopathy and its effects published since 2009, and has been able to verify that the majority of studies suggesting benefits of homeopathy are of low methodological quality, while "as the quality and rigor of clinical trials increase, the supposed effect of homeopathy decreases until it disappears". From a scientific point of view, the principles of homeopathy "clash with the laws of current physics and pharmacology", adds the document.

The Agency's report indicates that, although there is a popular belief that these preparations are harmless because they are "natural", serious adverse reactions have been reported such as poisonings due to incorrect dosage and cases of infant deaths linked to teething products. But the main risk of these products is the abandonment or delay of medical treatments with proven efficacy, it stresses.

Lately, the Ministry of Health has withdrawn 1,032 products from the market after completing a regularization process, so there are no longer any homeopathic products with a therapeutic indication authorized in Spain. The 976 that remain registered have proven to be harmless and are legally prohibited from including any therapeutic indication on their labeling.

Spain thus continues the trend that has led France and the United Kingdom to eliminate funding for homeopathic products, a process that is already underway in Germany, while Australia and the United States require warnings about their lack of scientific basis.