Homeopathy for ADHD

My mother in law lives in Switzerland.  She suffers from irritable bowel disease.  As far as I know, she only has one physician, a homeopathic physician, who she swears by.  She claims that he is the only physician who has been able to help her.  Homeopathy works by a law that I call, "killing fire with fire".  Homeopaths believe that if you give someone a little of something that will cause the same mild symptoms as the symptoms that they are having, the body will recognize the tiny irritant and will produce its own cure for that particular problem.

Homeopathy is hugely popular in Europe and in South and Central America.  They Royal family has their very own homeopathic physician and people in Switzerland and in Germany use homeopathy with much more ease, confidence, and frequency than we do here in the U.S.  Homeopathy was started in Germany by a physician who practiced traditional allopathic medicine.

It was a Cholera epidemic in the 1830s which put homeopathy on the map.  Patients treated with the homeopathic cure survived the epidemic at rates that were 50-60 percent higher than those treated with traditional medicine.   Pharmacist, traditional physicians, and homeopathic physicians have been trying to figure out why ever since.

From my research I found that no one knows with 100% certainty exactly why, how, or if  homeopathy works.  There have been published randomized control trials that have shown that it is more effective than placebo in a number of studies.  There have been some studies on the treatment of ADHD symptoms done in Switzerland which have found the treatment to be highly effective provided that the child is placed on the correct homeopathic remedy.  Homeopaths believe that you must treat every individual with the exact medicine that will help that individual and that a 'one medicine fits all' approach does not work for ADHD or for any disease.

A search of the ADHD forums finds some homeopathy advocates who swear that the medicine has helped their hyperactivity, inattentiveness, and focus.  There are as many, if not more, people on these forums who report that the homeopathic medicines are a HUGE waste of money.

Homeopathic physicians argue that one treatment may help one person while another treatment for ADHD will help another and that the treatments have to be tailored to the person.  One study done in Switzerland first identified the medicine that would work for a child with ADHD and then followed them for several months.  The researcher from this study reported that these children, who had tailor made treatments, did very well controlling their symptoms of ADHD with their individual ADHD cures.

There is absolutely no harm in homeopathic medicine. It is considered to be extremely safe.  I do not believe in giving people false hope but I believe that, if the ADHD symptoms are not dangerously impairing, that anything is worth a try.  I tried Vaxa Attend with my 11 year old son and it did not work for him.  Maybe a tailor made cure would have made the difference but I was trained in traditional medicine and do not and did not have enough confidence in homeopathy to pursue this further.

If there is a homeopathic physician reading this who would like to interview me or my un-medicated inattentive son and send us a sample of a homeopathic remedy that I might review on this website,  I would be more than happy to give this remedy a try and report back to all of you.

I noticed recently that Vaxa Attend was advertising on this website.  I am afraid that I cannot give them my endorsement but if this homeopathic medicine happens to help your symptoms of ADHD,  I am very happy for you!

6 comments:

  1. Dr. Amy Lansky wrote a very comprehensive book called 'Impossible Cure' that not only explains homeopathy but tells the story of how her son was treated successfully through homeopathy.
    You can also listen to her story and learn more about homeopathy (free) by downloading a broadcast on: www.homeopathyradio.com

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  2. HI, we have been trying homeopathy for the last 8 months with our 6 year old ADHD/aspergers son, and I am really gutted to say for us it has had little effect.

    I used homeopathy as a teenager when I was really poorly with ME/post viral fatigue which went on for 5 years and the doctors were at a loss of what to do. My parents tried homeopathy as a last resort, and within a few months of that and acupunture I was showing improvements, within 2 years I was well enough to go off to University and I have never looked back and since then I have sworn by homeopathy. Sadly however, we've not had the same luck with homeopathy and out 6 year old.

    There is a school of thought (quite a strong beleif) that homeopathy in children is more difficult and not proven, and the dilutions of the medications are very hard to get right as children are so small. Some even believe it is dangerous to give children homoepathic medicines as many at the wrong strength are poisons.

    We were willing to give it a go as we really wanted to avoid the medication route. There is a homeopathic hospital in London which we can fortunately get to, so we have been referred to them. We have tried a wheat free, gluten free, diary free diet for 6 months with little effect, and 3 different sets of remedies, again with little effect.

    We have now gone down the medication route. We felt we needed to take the bull by the horn as our son is falling so behind at school and is beginning to realise now, he was becoming withdrawn, tending to lone, and becoming very disheartened, he was also being bullied and blamed for things even when he was not in the room. For us it seems medication has been the right thing to do, time will tell and I definately have not ruled out returning to homeopathy in the future when he is a little older. I keep meaning to add a post on this to my blog, so maybe I will now!

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  3. Interesting about kids and homeopathy!! Sounds like he is doing better on the traditional medicine and that is great news.

    I will listen to the audio broadcast. Thanks Melissa for the link.

    Thanks for commenting!! Tess

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  4. I find your posts really interesting and informative, so thanks for all your research into this!

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  5. I am mystified that you didn't pursue a safe remedy for your child just because you were trained in a different medical field. A homeopath is very inexpensive (probably less expensive than most prescription drugs for one month. How could it be a HUGE waste of money? Why would you not find a qualified homeopath and help your child without drugs. Homeopathy is highly effective for ADHD - if customized as you noted.

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  6. I believe that you have to have confidence in the treatment plan that you are using and I simply have not read enough positive reports on the success of using homeopathy for ADHD to give it more of a try than I did.

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