Retrospective estimation of prevalence and likelihood ratio of general symptoms of 29 less frequently prescribed homoeopathic medicines by clinical verification

Context: Scientific assessment of proving symptoms or already recorded symptoms in patients refers to Clinical Verification (CV). There are serious shortcomings of existing methods of CV, mostly arising from qualitative observations made on absolute occurrence of symptoms instead of relative ones. This problem can be resolved by the use of the Likelihood Ratio (LR). Aim: This study aims to estimate the prevalence and LRs of general symptoms of 29 less frequently prescribed homoeopathic medicines. Methods: The study was multicentric, open and observational. Patients were enrolled as per pre-specified eligibility criteria. Alongside, presenting complaints and general symptoms were taken into account during prescription. Medicines were prescribed in centesimal potencies. LR calculation of general symptoms was based on clinician-rated outcomes as 'improved' and 'not improved' of presenting complaints and was divided into three sections: (1) when the prevalence of a symptom was available from literature, LR was calculated by assessing the prevalence of that symptom in the responder sample, (2) in the absence of so, calculation was restricted to mean prevalence data from study sample ('confined LR') and (3) 'confined LRs' were not calculated for symptoms whose prevalence were not recorded for at least five medicines and were kept for estimation in future. Results: Of 166 general symptoms of 29 medicines, LRs and confined LRs >1.5 were elicited for 6 and 49 symptoms, respectively. Conclusion: In spite of considerable caveats, it is the first insight into prevalence and LRs of general symptoms of less frequently prescribed homoeopathic medicines. Further research is warranted.