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Originally Posted by sanctus
I always have been a skeptic of homeopathy and said it only works through placebo effect. But lately a frind of my girlfriend who is "help-veterinary" (sorry no idea of what it is in english) told me that they use homeopathy on animals and that it works, but animals can't have placebo effect.
What do you think is this a proof of homeopathy working?
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I think your skepticism is well-founded.
My vet (I have 2 elderly cats, and see more of her than I wish) recommends a lot of homeopathic and other alternative meds, too.
Given the lack of any peer-reviewed (or even just statistically sound, adequately controlled) research, I don’t believe a case has been made that homeopathic meds work any more in animals than in human, which is to say, that they do not work at all. And while it may be true that animals are not cognitively capable of experiencing a placebo effect, the human beings who observe them and report their condition to veterinaries certainly are.
I’ve seen people distraught with what they perceive as the terrible condition of a pet, only to be told later that by the vet that a diagnosis is in error, and the pet is fine. The pet changes its behavior very little (other than in reaction to changes in interaction with its owners). It is the perception of the owners that experiences a “placebo effect.”
I believe the more wide-spread acceptance of alternative medicine in veterinary medicine is due to its promotion by veterinary pharmaceutical companies, which, unlike their human counterparts, are subject to little regulation requiring scientific proof of their claims.
