Cured Case of Alcoholism with Homeopathy by Tamara Der-Ohanian
“Still enjoying your new Honda Accord?” he inquired, following their sexual encounter in his hotel room. Rising on her elbow, Danielle peered at the stranger she had met at the bar less than two hours earlier. “How do you know I drive a Honda Accord?” she asked feeling alarmed.
“Don’t you remember being with me three weeks ago?” he continued. “You have a condo in Etobicoke and work as an IT specialist.”
Danielle had no recollection of ever meeting this man, much less being intimate with him three weeks earlier. Feeling ashamed and desperate, Danielle got dressed and left the hotel. She proceeded to drive home despite the fact that she had consumed a dozen or so gin and tonics earlier that evening.
This was the lowest Danielle had ever felt. Sobbing and pleading with God on her drive home, Danielle decided to take her hands off the steering wheel and let fate decide the outcome. Next thing she remembered was waking up in her bed the next morning with the front door of her apartment wide open. She had no recollection of her drive home, parking underground, or making her way up to the 20th floor.
This was the turning point which helped Danielle make the decision to quit drinking and call AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) for help.
I met Danielle several months after she had joined AA. At first she was alcohol-free for eight weeks, then resumed drinking, although not as heavily. Danielle was stuck in a cycle of alcohol consumption and abstinence. Abstinence brought out her feelings of anger, shame and worthlessness. When these feelings became unbearable, Danielle would resume drinking which helped her cope.
I prescribed the homeopathic remedy Crotalus Horridus, which helped Danielle to gradually stop the vicious cycle of alcohol consumption. Over a period of three months, the negative feelings that drove her to drink diminished. She was able to cope with the feelings without needing to drown them with alcohol. Instead, she could discuss them in her AA group. To date, Danielle has been sober for eight years.
Scientific Study: Homeopathy for Alcoholism
A randomized comparative trial in the management of Alcohol Dependence: Individualized Homoeopathy versus standard Allopathic Treatment
Raj K Manchanda; K R Janardanan Nair; Roja Varanasi; Praveen Oberai; R Bhuvaneswari; Rupali Bhalerao; M Gnnanaprakasham; Maya Padmanabhan; V A Siddiqui
Indian Journal of Research in Homoeopathy, Volume 10, Number 3, 2016, pp. 172-181(10)
Objectives: This study was undertaken to compare the effects of IH with standard allopathic (SA) treatment.
Methods: A randomized controlled, open-label, comparative trial, was conducted, in which alcohol dependents were screened verbally using the CAGE scale. The participants 80 patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria were randomized either IH (n=40) or SA (n=40) and treated cum followed up for 12 months. The primary outcome was more than 50% reduction in the Severity of Alcohol Dependence Questionnaire [SADQ] rating scale at 12 th month. Data analysis was done for both intention-to-treat (ITT) and per-protocol (PP) populations.
Results: ITT analysis reflected 80% (n = 32) of the patients in IH and 37.5% (n = 15) of the patients in the SA responding to CI before 2.4 treatment with absolute difference was 42.5% (42.5 [95% confidence interval [CI]: 23.0, 61.6]) and estimated effect: 6.6 (95% C.I: 2.4, 18.2), P = 0.0002. A significant difference favoring IH was also observed in three out of four domains of WHO QOL-BREF. Statistically significant difference was found in the number of drinking days (median difference: −24.00; CI: −39.0-−8.0; P = 0.001) and number of drinks per drinking day (median difference: −6.3 [95% CI: −11.3-−1.9]; P = 0.004), favoring IH. The results showed a similar trend in PP analysis. Medicines found useful were Sulphur, Lycopodium clavatum, Arsenicum album, Nux vomica, Phosphorus, and Lachesis.
Conclusion: The results conclude that IH is not inferior to SA in the management of AD patients. More rigorous studies with large sample size are however desirable.