The pharmacists and homeopathy

Curr Health Sci J. 2014 Jan;40(1):57-9. doi: 10.12865/CHSJ.40.01.10. Epub 2013 Dec 29.

Abstract

Presented at the end of the end of the XVIII(th) century by the German doctor Samuel Hahnemann as a form of complementary therapy, homeopathy has increasingly produced multiple controversies regarding the plausibility, effectiveness and safety of homeopathic remedies. Regardless, there are clients who require pharmacist's advice about their usage indications and effectiveness. As specialists in the field of medication, pharmacists must have basic notions about the principles on which homeopathic remedies have been based, given that it is the opposite of modern pharmacological theories. These describe in great detail the underlying mechanisms of action of the drug. Under these conditions, the ethical role of the pharmacist is to give accurate, impartial information regarding the homeopathic therapy, the current scientific proof on their therapeutic effects, including the placebo effect. This, doubled by a comprehensive, objective presentation of the options of medication-based treatment, guarantee pharmacists a clean reputation as competent authorities in the pharmaceutical field.

Keywords: homeopathy; pharmacists; remedies.