Homeopathic Treatment for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - Research Proposal Example

Analysis of Efficacy of Homeopathic Treatment for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome As far as the present methods are considered there is no treatment that is considered to be universal, regarding the chronic fatigue syndrome. By using alternative and complementary medicines, the number of patients found cure for the problem. The fatigue chronic syndrome must have a clear focus. The selection of internal and external questions must be introduced and analysed. The generation of the data must be from multiple resources and studies. The recordings and observations of the private practitioners can be one of them. 1 Q1: Briefly describe the type research design that was used in this study The aim of this study is to analyse the efficacy of the homeopathic treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome and evaluate it. The method used is triple blind design. In this method the patient and the homeopath will be blind to group assignment and data analyst will be blind to group until the completion of initial analysis. In this system the patients will be randomly assigned to homeopathic medicine or for identical medicine. The outcomes of the study according to Oxford criteria were the scores that are sub scales for multidimensional fatigue inventory. The proportions of various groups attained clinically important developments on each subscale also can be recorded. 2 The next outcomes will be the measures of the impact of the fatigue considered as Fatigue impact scale (FIS). In a study out of 92 patients, eighty six patients completed the post treatment methods. The patients in homeopathic medicine group did show significant development on the MFI scale and FLP scales. They did not show this type of remarkable improvement on other scales. This tells that the patients who took homeopathic treatment did not show improvement only on FIS scale. In case of FLP scale there are certain limitations for the functions involved, but it is effective on multidimensional scale. This proves that the homeopathic treatment is multidimensional and the functional limitations of it need more research to extend their impact to FIS scale. Though there are chances of positive outcomes and less relative risk the outcome can be considered as weak. At the same time, this can be considered that the homeopathic medicine is superior to placebo. The benefits which are non specific must be recorded and can be made specific. The various effects the homeopathic medicine exhibits are considered as non specific because the areas of effectiveness were not considered and researched. This tells the need of the further study to determine the differences in the larger samples and the identification of non specific areas observed in the homeopathic treatment. To enhance the effectiveness of the homeopathy in the specific areas and to recognise the specifications for the effectiveness of homeopathy there are two ways. One is the research by university researchers according to the parameters of the research methods and the other is the recordings and the observations of the cases and treatments by the private practitioners. These two studies must be done two individual research groups being blind to each other. After the completion of the study, the results can be compared and any lapses in the research can be analysed if there are any contradictions and if they coincide the specifications can be decided. Q2: Write an experimental hypothesis for this study The chronic fatigue syndrome is found in 6 adults out of 100000. The number of specifications mentioned for the study decides the outcome. The reasons and treatment for it were not completely known till now. They change from case to case and from study to study. Q3: What would your null hypothesis be The null hypothesis for this study is that the treatment and research regarding the homeopathy for CFS yielded positive results for the cases of less specifications and not positive for the cases having more specifications. That is the results are positive for smaller data base and negative for the larger data base. Q4: What does relative risk 2.75 in the results section mean The relative risk 2.75 is the measure of the risk of retaining CFS after the homeopathic treatment in a research study. Generally analysis will be built upon the existing theory. But in the case of some non specific contexts if the researchers find any thing which is against the existing theory it is better to record it for the further separate study as it will not fit into the existing theory. The triangulation, grounded ness, validation of the respondent and the extent of reflection will be the measures for the accuracy of the results. The advantage of homeopathy over other systems is that it can deal with the systematic bias and its applicability to the pharmaceutical interventions. Q5: What does a p value tells us The p value can be termed as the probability of obtaining the result at least as impressive as that obtained, taking the truth of the null hypothesis that the outcome was the result of chance only. The correct interpretation is based on this assumption. The p vaule in case of studies regarding the chronic fatigue syndrome were that the probability of number of patients reported the same problem after the specified period in the case study. In a limited data base cases it was found that the p value decreased with time but in the larger data base the decrease in p value is not considerable to term it as a positive result. The studies on homeopathy concluded superior to panacea in limited case study but the studies produced negative results when a larger group is taken. This implies that the parameters and specifications in the medicine were not sufficient for the research on larger scale. The negative result on larger scale cannot be considered as a limitation for the treatment given by that medicine but it stresses the need of taking new observations and more recordings of the researchers and practitioners into consideration. The reason is that the recordings of the cases and the observations were less when compared to other systems of medicine. The reason for the superiority of the homeopathy over panacea medication is that there a chance of negative result in panacea medication if the practitioner chooses the wrong one. The chance of practitioner choosing wrong medicine is also more in placebo medicine as a single medicine will cure multidimensional symptoms and syndromes. Q6: The evidence of long term effects and post treatment effects in homeopathic treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome The positive results of the studies of homeopathy on multidimensional cases are a cause for the superiority of the system over placebo. But when the specifications were mentioned the homeopathy is yielding the negative results. The case is that the more larger the patient data base is taken more specifications will be there for the study. This context is giving negative results according to Linde's meta analysis. This tells the fact that there is lack of specifications for the homeopathic system of medicine. The practitioners may be convinced of therapeutic outcomes of the cases in their clinics. The failure of considering the long term effects or the post treatment effects also was a reason for the negative results outcome when the larger patient data base is considered. The therapeutic knowledge is conveyed through written and seminar reports the cases in which treatment is successful. The positive results that came in the limited case research will be little use for the homeopathic practitioners as they interact with a larger base of the patients. Another reason for the limited use of the positive results achieved by the studies is that there is lack of comparing the groups. That is, when we get an outcome in study that involved limited or small data base of patients, there is need to compare it with the similar study. The comparison may be done immediately or after some time. But when the comparison was done and the observed change must be recorded and can be used for the development and recording of specifications. The reason is that different studies may yield results in different specifications. Q7: The appropriation of the methodology in the research case: This is more important in the case of chronic fatigue syndrome as it is different from individual to individual, environment to environment and from case to case. Number of private practitioners observed that there are different positive results obtained in different treatment conditions and various environments the patients live. If the success of the treatment for a patient in a particular environment was reported it can be studied under the experiment research study. In this study the experiment decides the role of environment in the success of the medicine but not the whole success of the treatment. This can be considered as one of the specification. Part 2 Q1: What do you understand by qualitative research methodology Qualitative research methodology is an in depth understanding of patient behaviour and the reasons that govern that type of behaviour in patients. Unlike in quantitative research methodology the qualitative research takes into consideration the reasons for the outcomes. In the quantitative research the reasons were not taken into consideration. Q2: What role do you think that the qualitative research methods have played in the development of homeopathy The individualistic methods that are prescribed in history are applied to limited conditions and those results were taken as the basis for study. This makes the study limited to certain specifications and the majority and new specifications that arise due to the change in the living conditions will not be involved. To get positive results in the studies involving larger data base of chronic fatigue syndrome cases, introduction of the diagnosis process is needed. The diagnosis process will provide the reasons for the development of the syndrome and this makes the treatment qualitative. The qualitative research methodology has done a lot to convert the homeopathic treatment from quantitative methodology to qualitative methodology. The comparison of different studies will pave the way for getting more specifications which make the research on the larger base an easy thing. For the above mentioned studies and the cases the case based approach can be considered. According to Luckoff in an overview of reasons mentioned that, the case studies examine the people close to real situations. The distortion of the natural behaviour is not observed in this context. The distortion in the research studies done by doing experiments will manipulate the previous results and ignore the natural and real circumstances. As the results from the case studies give more and more specifications the studies done by experiments by including the results by case studies will give more accurate results. There must be a system to include the results in case studies in the experimental research studies. This increases the accuracy of the experimental results in the course of time. The next context is the external validity. The experimental results will be termed as consistent when they treat the CFS in real world conditions. One cannot give treatment for all the patients in the experimental conditions specified by the researchers. When the conditions are implemented the fatigue may not occur in some cases. So the applicability of the results in the real world conditions is important. The individual nature of homeopathy is making the studies positive in smaller data base and negative in larger data base. The reason is that the remedies were being decided by the features of the case but not by the diagnosis. Even the practitioners also give medicine according to the features involved in the case. Some practitioners give medicine when a third party explains the features of the illness and sickness. This individualistic nature of the homeopathic did not study deeply the diagnostic methods. The main cause for the failure of getting the positive results in larger database is the absence of the diagnosis methods. The individualistic method is best suitable for a smaller data base. To make a system universal the diagnosis must be made a compulsory topic in the study and the research or the recording. Even in the treatment the diagnosis must be given importance. The case studies can be designed according to the above analysis. The inclusion of design and implementation will increase the credibility of the homeopathic practitioners. The FCS can be designed to include a number of cases. This is due to the fact that the comparison is important for analysis. They must be as follows: Deciding on the focus of the stdy, Sampling the FCS, Planning the data collection Data analysis Fatigue chronic syndrome Means of ensuring trustworthiness Groundedness Exploring various explanations for the outcomes The Validation of the respondent Writing up the Fatigue Chronic Syndrome In doing study according to the above methods the diagnosis methods must be included in the study. References: References: 1. Weatherley-Jones E, Nicholl JP, Thomas KJ, Parry GJ, McKendrick MW, Green ST, Stanley PJ, Lynch SP, 2004, A randomised, controlled, triple-blind trial of the efficacy of homeopathic treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome, NCBI, ,electronic, 27-11-06, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgidb=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=15016577&query_hl=2&itool=pubmed_docsum 2. DB Thompson, 2004, Can the caged bird sing Reflections on the application of qualitative research methods to case study design in homeopathic medicine, Bio Med Central, ,electronic, 27-11-06, http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2288/4/4 Read More