Table 3.

Homeopathic clinical studies on infections of upper airways and ear–nose–throat diseases

Reference and year	Condition (diagnosis)	Study type	Classification of publication	Study group	Treatment(s)	Outcomes	Key results
Gassinger et al. (1981) (49)	Acute rhinitis	1b	1b	53	Eupatorium perfoliatum 2× versus aspirin	Symptom severity score	Equivalence between homeopathy and allopathy
Lecoq (1985) (50)	Upper respiratory tract infections	1a	2	60	Homeopathic complex L52 versus placebo	Symptoms severity score	Patients rated more relief in verum group
Bordes and Dorfman (1986) (51)	Cough	1a	2	60	Low-dilution (3c) homeopathic complex in syrup (Drosera) versus placebo	Symptoms	Decrease of symptoms 20 out of 30 treated patients, as against only 8 out of 30 in the placebo group
Maiwald et al. (1988) (52)	Acute rhinitis	1b	1b	170	Homeopathic complex Grippheel versus aspirin	Symptom severity score	Equivalence between homeopathy and allopathy
Sprenger (1989) (53)	Acute and chronic rhinitis	3	2	65	Low-dilution homeopathic complex formulation Euphorbium compositum, nasal spray	The physician's judgment of the therapy	Positive in 83% of cases (uncontrolled)
Wiesenauer et al. (1989) (54)	Sinusitis	1a	2	152	Low-dilution (3×–4×) homeopathic complex Luffa, Cinnabaris, Kalium bichromicum versus placebo	Symptoms and global evaluation	No effect over placebo
Zenner and Metelmann (1990) (55)	Pharyngitis and tonsillitis	3	2	594	Low-dilution (3×–4×) homeopathic complex Lymphomyosot drops	Global evaluation, semi-quantitative	Improvement in >90% of cases (uncontrolled)
Connert and Maiwald (1991) (56)	Rhinitis and nose obstruction	3	2	26	Euphorbium compositum	Symptoms, rhinomanometry	Decrease of symptoms in most patients (uncontrolled)
Weiser and Clasen (1994) (57)	Chronic sinusitis	1a	2	155	Euphorbium compositum versus placebo	Subjective symptoms and functional tests	21.1% improvement in the verum group, 14.4% in the placebo group. No change in tests
Heilmann (1994) (58)	Common cold and flu	1a	2	102	Engystol-N versus placebo, i.v. injection	Frequency and symptoms	No change of frequency of attacks, decrease of symptoms and their duration
Friese et al. (1997) (59)	Otitis media	2	1a	131 children	Individualized versus allopathy	Duration of pain and therapy	Homeopathy slightly better than conventional therapy
Kruse (1998) (60)	Otitis media in children	2	3	126	Individualized versus allopathy	Duration of pain and therapy	Equivalent efficacy
Wiesenauer (1998) (61)	Acute tonsillitis	3	1b	107	Low-dilution homeopathic complex of Phytolacca americana, Guajacum officinale, Capsicum annuum	Subjective and objective symptoms	Decrease of symptoms in most patients (uncontrolled)
De Lange de Klerk (1999) (62)	Pharingitis, tonsillitis	1a	1a	170 children	Individualized versus placebo	Frequency, duration and severity of rhinitis, pharyngitis episodes	Little, non significant, effect in favor of homeopathy versus placebo
Adler (1999) (63)	Acute sinusitis	3	1a	119	Homeopathic complex Sinusitis PMD	Symptoms	Trend to positive (uncontrolled)
Frei and Thurneysen (2001) (64)	Acute otitis media	3	1b	230 children	Individualized	Pain	Improvement in 39% of patients after 6 h, another 33% after 12 h (uncontrolled)
Riley et al. (2001) (65)	Respiratory tract complaints or ear complaints	2	1b	456	Individualized homeopathy versus allopathy	Healing or a major improvement after 14 days of treatment, adverse effects	Improvement in 82.6% of homeopathic patients, 68% of allopathic
Jacobs (2001) (66)	Acute otitis media	1a	1a	75 children	Individualized versus placebo	Treatment failures and symptoms scores	Less failures in verum group, not significant; little and significant decrease of symptoms in verum group
Oberbaum et al. (2001) (67)	Chemotherapy-associated stomatitis	1a	1a	32 children	Homeopathic complex Traumeel-S versus placebo.	Stomatitis development and scores	Less stomatitis in verum group
Rabe et al. (2004) (68)	Mild upper respiratory tract infections	2	1a	485	Homeopathic complex Grippheel versus NSAIDS	Symptoms	Equivalence between homeopathy and allopathy
Ammerschlager et al. (2005) (69)	Rhinitis and sinusitis	2	1b	739	Low-dilution homeopathic complex formulation Euphorbium compositum, nasal spray versus xylometazoline	Symptoms and tolerability	Equivalent efficacy
Steinsbekk et al. (2005) (70)	Upper respiratory tract infections	1b	1b	169 children	Individualized versus untreated	Symptoms score	Decrease of days with symptoms in homeopathic group
Steinsbekk et al. (2005) (71)	Upper respiratory tract infections	1a	1a	251 children	Individualized, parents-selected, versus placebo	Prevention of new episodes	No effectiveness of homeopathy over placebo
Trichard et al. (2005) (72)	Acute rhinopharyngitis	4	1b	499 children	Homeopathic strategy versus allopathic strategy (e.g. antibiotics)	Number of episodes, quality of life, costs	Various indexes significantly in favor of homeopathic strategy, lower medical costs (uncontrolled)