Rheumatoid Arthritis: Early diagnosis and treatment outcomes with individualized Homoeopathic medicine: A single blind, simple randomized placebo controlled study

Abstract

Introduction: Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is the most common inflammatory articular disorder. It is a chronic progressive systemic autoimmune disease with hallmark of chronic erosive-polyarthritis. It can be seen in all races with overall prevalence of about 1 percent. Its prevalence in old women is about 5 percent and female to male ratio is 3 to 1 in this disorder with the peak onset age of 50 ± 15 years .The clinical feature of RA is divided to three categories such as Articular, Peri-articular, Extra-articular (systemic). Research Objectives: To study the response of Homoeopathic medicaments in RA with response to change in Disease Activity Scores in 28 joints (DAS28).Methodology: The study was simple randomized and single blind method. The sample size was fixed at 90.Test group 60 i.e. Group - I(Centesimal -30), Group – II( 50 Millesimal -30 ) & Group – III( Control) 30. Duration of study was for two years. It was carried out at International Study & Research Centre on Homoeopathy, Bhubaneswar. There were inclusion & exclusion criteria, treatment plan, follow up with disease activity scores in 28 joints (DAS28) of RA. Results: Were documented before and after with change in RA severity, which was assessed by Disease Activity Scores in 28 joints (DAS28). Before treatment the data were collected as per DAS28 and categorized into low disease activity, moderate disease activity and high disease activity. After intervention as per the “DAS28 improvement over time points” the response was recorded. As per the guidelines above data were interpreted in results.Statistical Analysis: Chi-square test for comparision of centesimal potency and placebo the chi-square equals to 32.593 with 1 degree of freedom. The two tailed P value is less than 0.0001. Hence the result was statistically significant difference (P