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Frequently asked questions

Some common points of argument are addressed in the FAQ below, which represents the consensus of editors here. Please remember that this page is only for discussing Wikipedia's encyclopedia article about Homeopathy.

To view an explanation to the answer, click the [show] link to the right of the question.

Q1: Should material critical of homeopathy be in the article? (Yes.)

A1: Yes. Material critical of homeopathy must be included in the article. The articles on Wikipedia include information from all significant points of view. This is summarized in the policy pages which can be accessed from the Neutral point of view policy. This article strives to conform to Wikipedia policies, which dictate that a substantial fraction of articles in fringe areas be devoted to mainstream views of those topics.

Q2: Should material critical of homeopathy be in the lead? (Yes.)

A2: Yes. Material critical of homeopathy belongs in the lead section. The lead must contain a summary of all the material in the article, including the critical material. This is described further in the Lead section guideline.

Q3: Is the negative material in the article NPOV? (Yes.)

A3: Yes. Including negative material is part of achieving a neutral article. A neutral point of view does not necessarily equate to a sympathetic point of view. Neutrality is achieved by including all points of view – both positive and negative – in rough proportion to their prominence.

Q4: Does Wikipedia consider homeopathy a fringe theory? (Yes.)

A4: Yes. Homeopathy is described as a fringe medical system in sources reliable to make the distinction.^[1] This is defined by the Fringe theories guideline, which explains: We use the term fringe theory in a very broad sense to describe ideas that depart significantly from the prevailing or mainstream view in its particular field of study.

Since the collective weight of peer-reviewed studies does not support the efficacy of homeopathy, it departs significantly enough from the mainstream view of science to be considered a fringe theory.

References

^ Jonas, WB; Ives, JA (February 2008). "Should we explore the clinical utility of hormesis". Human & Experimental Toxicology. 27 (2): 123–127. PMID 18480136.

Q5: Should studies that show that homeopathy does not work go into the article? (Yes.)

A5: Yes. Studies that show that homeopathy does not work are part of a full treatment of the topic and should go into the article. Wikipedia is not the place to right great wrongs. Non-experts have suggested that all the studies that show homeopathy does not work are faulty studies and are biased, but this has not been borne out by the mainstream scientific community.

Q6: Should another article called "Criticism of homeopathy" be created? (No.)

A6: No. Another article called "Criticism of homeopathy" should not be created. This is called a "POV fork" and is discouraged.

Q7: Should alleged proof that homeopathy works be included in the article? (No.)

A7: No. Alleged proof that homeopathy works should not be included in the article. That is because no such proof has come from reliable sources. If you have found a reliable source, such as an academic study, that you think should be included, you can propose it for inclusion on the article’s talk page. Note that we do not have room for all material, both positive and negative. We try to sample some of each and report them according to their prominence. Note also that it is not the job of Wikipedia to convince those people who do not believe homeopathy works, nor to dissuade those who believe that it does work, but to accurately describe how many believe and how many do not believe and why.

Q8: Should all references to material critical of homeopathy be put in a single section in the article? (No.)

A8: No. Sources critical of homeopathy should be integrated normally in the course of presenting the topic and its reception, not shunted into a single criticism section. Such segregation is generally frowned upon as poor writing style on Wikipedia.

Q9: Should the article mention that homeopathy might work by some as-yet undiscovered mechanism? (No.)

A9: No. The article should not mention that homeopathy might work by some as-yet undiscovered mechanism. Wikipedia is not a place for original research or speculation.

Q10: Is the article with its negative material biased? (No.)

A10: No. The article with its negative material is not biased. The article must include both positive and negative views according to the policies of Wikipedia.

Q11: Should the article characterize homeopathy as a blatant fraud and quackery? (No.)

A11: No. Inflammatory language does not serve the purpose of an encyclopedia; it should only be done if essential to explain a specific point of view and must be supported from a reliable source. Wikipedia articles must be neutral and reflect information found in reliable sources. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia and not a consumer guide, so while scientific sources commonly characterise homeopathy as nonsense, fraud, pseudoscience and quackery - and the article should (and does) report this consensus - ultimately the reader should be allowed to draw his/her own conclusions.

Homeopathy was one of the Natural sciences good articles, but it has been removed from the list. There are suggestions below for improving the article to meet the good article criteria. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
September 14, 2006	Good article nominee	Not listed
September 27, 2007	Good article nominee	Listed
October 8, 2007	Good article reassessment	Delisted
October 13, 2007	Good article reassessment	Delisted
October 19, 2007	Peer review	Reviewed
October 25, 2007	Good article nominee	Listed
February 9, 2008	Peer review	Reviewed
March 2, 2009	Peer review	Reviewed
April 4, 2009	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
November 2, 2012	Good article reassessment	Delisted
Current status: Delisted good article

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Template:Vital article

This article is written in British English with Oxford spelling (colour, realize, organization, analyse; note that -ize is used instead of -ise) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

There have been attempts to recruit editors of specific viewpoints to this article, in a manner that does not comply with Wikipedia's policies. Editors are encouraged to use neutral mechanisms for requesting outside input (e.g. a "request for comment", a third opinion or other noticeboard post, or neutral criteria: "pinging all editors who have edited this page in the last 48 hours"). If someone has asked you to provide your opinion here, examine the arguments, not the editors who have made them. Reminder: disputes are resolved by consensus, not by majority vote.

Ideal sources for Wikipedia's health content are defined in the guideline Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources (medicine) and are typically review articles. Here are links to possibly useful sources of information about Homeopathy.

PubMed provides review articles from the past five years (limit to free review articles)
The TRIP database provides clinical publications about evidence-based medicine.
Other potential sources include: Centre for Reviews and Dissemination and CDC

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Homeopathy article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: Index, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65: 30 days

"No molecules remain"

In the lead: "Dilution typically continues well past the point where no molecules of the original substance remain." A miswording, since the substance remains somewhere. Suggested rewording: "Dilution typically continues well past the point where individual doses would contain no molecules of the original substance." 73.71.251.64 (talk) 21:18, 8 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

A very good point, and a change I have made. Black Kite (talk) 23:09, 8 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Evidence

This is clearly not moving forward and there is no consensus for adding anything based on the reported sources. -Roxy, the dog. wooF 08:05, 29 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Can any of the links mentioned at https://www.ccrhindia.nic.in/Index1.aspx?lid=7624&lsid=9684&pid=642&lev=2&Regid=0&langid=1 be used as evidence in this article? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2402:8100:2819:112B:0:0:0:1 (talk) 21:10, 19 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Those links are just pointing to entire databases, not sources. It would be like asking if The New York Public Library is a good source - you have to be way more specific. Someguy1221 (talk) 21:14, 19 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Ultra-Diluted Toxicodendron pubescens attenuates pro- inflammatory cytokines and ROS mediated neuropathic pain in rats*

One of the world's premiere Science journal has published research paper by Indian group of researchers on pain relieving properties of a popular Homoeopathic Medicine.

Published in the Journal *Scientific Reports* from the *Nature* group, the paper through experiments on cell line and laboratory rats, describes how ultra diluted Homoeopathic Medicine Toxicodendron Pubescens, popularly known as *Rhus Tox* can reduce pain in rats.

The study shows protective effects of Rhus Tox against sciatic nerve injury through maintainance of normal nerve architecture and inhibition of inflammatory changes. The neuro protective effect suggests involvement of anti oxidative and anti inflammatory mechanism.

Samir K Brahmachari, biologist and former Director General of CSIR (Council of Scientific & Industrial Research), GoI expressed "Experiments are well conducted and measurements look convincing".

As per the record of Ministry of AYUSH, under the Ministry of Health, under the Government of India, Homoeopathy has the highest number of quality Research papers published among all AYUSH systems. However Homoeopathy, time and again, has been a soft target of criticism of being unscientific to suppress it's growing popularity among the masses and classes. This study, through its positive results and high quality data, once again establishes the scientificity of Homoeopathic therapeutic modalities while keeping the critics dumbstruck — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2402:8100:281A:7C1F:0:0:0:1 (talk) 02:30, 29 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

That article was retracted. Someguy1221 (talk) 02:34, 29 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-44557-w Someguy1221 (talk) 02:50, 29 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Some more evidence of effectiveness:-

https://www.hri-research.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/NHMRC-Information-Paper-Mar2015.pdf

http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD003803

http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD000353.pub2

http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD009710.pub2

http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD005648.pub2

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28437146 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2402:8100:281A:7C1F:0:0:0:1 (talk) 02:45, 29 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

More evidence:-

There are a lot more at https://www.evidence.nhs.uk/search?pa=7&q=homeopathy — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2402:8100:281A:7C1F:0:0:0:1 (talk) 03:43, 29 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I am trying to prove that homeopathy is not placebo! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2402:8100:281A:7C1F:0:0:0:1 (talk) 04:01, 29 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Hello IP, you should probably have read the FAQ at the top of this page before spending all that time adding those links. Specifically Q7. -- McSly (talk) 04:06, 29 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I don't understand — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2402:8100:282B:C895:0:0:0:1 (talk) 04:19, 29 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

You have spent some time finding and adding those links in order to "prove that homeopathy is not placebo!". Question 7 of the FAQ on this page specifically addresses this: "Should alleged proof that homeopathy works be included in the article? (No.)". So if you had read the FAQ first, you would have saved the time since it is clearly answering your question. --McSly (talk) 04:30, 29 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I looked through some of your links. You have dumped on this talk page, among other studies, a retracted paper, reviews that state the studies of homeopathy are of such poor quality no conclusions can be drawn, and a feasibility study that determine it was impossible to perform a certain type of study of homeopathy and thus no conclusions could or would be drawn. If you think these are "evidences of homeopathy", I think you are just attempting a link-bomb version of the gish gallop. If you can't be bothered to form coherent arguments or even read the studies you're throwing at us, you're simply wasting everyone's time. Someguy1221 (talk) 04:32, 29 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Well shouldn’t this crap be deleted then? Andyjsmith (talk) 07:56, 29 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Recent evidence on Homeopathy - it is really a placebo therapy?

The most recent review is not clear...

The quality of the body of evidence is low. °A meta-analysis of all extractable data leads to rejection of our null hypothesis, but analysis of a small sub-group of reliable evidence does not support that rejection. Reliable evidence is lacking in condition-specific meta-analyses, precluding relevant conclusions. Better designed and more rigorous RCTs are needed in order to develop an evidence base that can decisively provide reliable effect estimates of non-individualised homeopathic treatment. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28340607

[Jonas2008-1] Jonas, WB; Ives, JA (February 2008). "Should we explore the clinical utility of hormesis". Human & Experimental Toxicology. 27 (2): 123–127. PMID 18480136.

[1]

@@ Line 171: / Line 171: @@
 The most recent review is not clear...
-The quality of the body of evidence is low. °A meta-analysis of all extractable data leads to rejection of our null hypothesis, but analysis of a small sub-group of reliable evidence does not support that rejection. Reliable evidence is lacking in condition-specific meta-analyses, precluding relevant conclusions. Better designed and more rigorous RCTs are needed in order to develop an evidence base that can decisively provide reliable effect estimates of non-individualised homeopathic treatment.
+The quality of the body of evidence is low. '''°A meta-analysis of all extractable data leads to rejection of our null hypothesis''', but analysis of a small sub-group of reliable evidence does not support that rejection. Reliable evidence is lacking in condition-specific meta-analyses, precluding relevant conclusions. Better designed and more rigorous RCTs are needed in order to develop an evidence base that can decisively provide reliable effect estimates of non-individualised homeopathic treatment.
 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28340607