HomeoPet Joint Relief Trial Results                                              

Studies were conducted in Dublin, Ireland over 2 years, with 115 dogs and 14 cats using the HomeoPet’s Joint Relief preparation. The purpose of the trial was to establish if Joint Relief was capable of producing an improvement in an animal clinically diagnosed as having arthritis. 

The trial, supervised by Dr. Thomas Farrington, M.R.C.V.S, was conducted in a working practice with access to a wide range of animals and species.  The study was conducted as a result of Trinity College researchers commenting on the lack of studies on homeopathy within Ireland and their need to see some clinical field data to allow suggestion of appropriate research into homeopathic treatment modalities.  The results of this clinical study have been used in submissions to Trinity College Dublin as part of the data to support an initial investigative trial into homeopathy.  In fact, it was later carried out on HomeoPet Anxiety and has led to a long-term research program by HomeoPet, now in action for nearly 15 years and currently active in various forms across 3 continents.

For the trial, arthritis was taken to be a consistent lameness, worse when the animal initially got up to walk, appearing to improve for a while on exercise, but deteriorating again on prolonged exercise.  The controls used in the trial were a number of animals already on conventional anti-inflammatory (PLT – Prednoleucotropin) for osteoarthritis and were known to deteriorate when off their medication.  A long trial period of 2 years was undertaken to investigate the outcome of animals medicated with Joint Relief for a long period of time, and whether or not they would deteriorate once taken off the homeopathic.

TABLE 1

The trial consisted of three groups.  Group One was canines.  The cross section of breeds shown is a cross section of canines seen in practice.

TABLE 2

 

Table 2 holds the data relating to the sex, age and neutering status of the animals in the trial.  They show a good spread of all three aspects as one would expect to find in practice with arthritis cases.  The mean age is approximately 20 years.  A higher incidence in overweight neutered females seems evident within the trial.

COMMENT (with retrospective comment June 2008)
One interesting result of the study within the practice was the number of new patients obtained by the practice for the “little white arthritis bottle” (HP Joint Relief) as a result of referrals from owners who were involved in the study from day one.  The study was a rolling study over the 2 years, therefore owners joined the study as they presented, with the end point being the grading at the end of the 2-year period irrespective of how long the dog or cat was involved in the study.  This counter-balanced any prejudice toward the homeopathic treatment.  Most owners used the homeopathic and conventional medications on an as needed basis; animals got less during the summer, or stopped altogether in some cases, but required it again during the winter months.  Most owners, because of the lack of side effects, chose to restart with the homeopathic medicine as the first line of treatment and the conventional medication was used as a supplement, which is the reverse of what they did at the start of the trial, and this is something that persists in my practice to this very day (June 2008).  In short, some patients had periods of “cure” with the homeopathic, and many benefited with a stop-start treatment regimen (stopping if the patient improved and restarting if or when symptoms returned).  Some found a maintenance level of treatment, such as 15 drops every 2nd or 3rd day, while others still found they had to supplement with the PLT. Others still found they had to use both homeopathic (HP Joint Relief) and PLT on a regular basis, and a small proportion found no benefit whatsoever from either the homeopathic or the PLT and another form of treatment modality had to be sought.

Dog Response Analysis in Study

 

Cat Response Analysis in Study                                                                     

Animals were given a dose 3 times per day until a response was seen and recorded by owners.  When a response was recorded, owners were advised to reduce to twice per day, then on continued improvement to then maintain at once per day, or to discontinue when a return to normal mobility was achieved. 

Owners reported the condition of the pet when they returned for more medication, either homeopathic (HP Joint Relief) or conventional medication (PLT), and this data was extracted from their case records at the time.  At the end of the 2-year period owners were asked to rate their pets’ response to the homeopathic.  They were informed that they could grade the patient in accordance with the grades shown below, with all non-reporters being included as “0” (no improvement) to try counter-balance any positive reporting from both clinician and pro-homeopathy owners (despite the fact that both of these were very limited factors).  This study was based on the final report where owners were contacted directly by phone, or letter if there was no response to the phone, to confirm the clinical data reports.  A “0” (no improvement) was given to those we failed to contact, or those who failed to report in at any point after joining the trial.  This was based on the response of their pet over the study duration but was graded on their final report at the end of the rolling study period.  Responses were graded as follows: 

LEVEL        CRITERIA OR MEANING

0   –     No improvement,
1   –     Very slight improvement,
2   –     An improvement but needed to be supplemented with conventional therapy in cold weather to obtain a satisfactory result,
3   –     An improvement with occasional supplementation during adverse weather or over exercise, but the dose of conventional therapy required was greatly reduced, 
4   –     Improvement requiring no supplemental conventional therapy, occasional bouts of either pain or stiffness in cold weather or after exercise, but controlled adequately with dosing Joint Relief,
5 –       Improvement to virtually normal, even on a reduced dose of Joint Relief and maintained adverse weather conditions.

The level of response seen across the different breeds and species indicates that the addition of Joint Relief as a treatment for cats and dogs suffering from symptoms of arthritis provides benefits.  An extra benefit, apart from the treatment response, is the lack of side effects, which is especially beneficial to the animal that has a poor tolerance to conventional therapies or some form of organ failure that either inhibits the use of current conventional modalities or enforces dose restriction, i.e. kidney, liver or digestive disturbances.  The formula contains constituents monographed in all the major Pharmacopeia—British, European, German and United States—and is listed as treatment for various arthritic symptoms within the Homeopathic Materia Medica, a compilation of 200 years of clinical treatment responses through testing (Prufung/Proving), clinical use and from accidental responses collated from other fields of use.  The results of the owner responses indicate that the vast majority saw improvement ranging from increased mobility, or some reduction in pain (analgesia), to complete return to normal from what had to have been a clinical arthritic state (as this was a criteria for trial inclusion), suggesting both an anti-inflammatory effect and a joint regenerative property, making its use with Glucosamine and Chondroitin Sulphates especially attractive as a treatment modality.

The principal finding of the trial of 129 animals including dogs and cats, is that Joint Relief produced a significant improvement.  Results show a 78% improvement at Levels 1-5 (inclusive) in dogs, with 48.7% showing a level 5 response of either a return to normal or virtually normal, and an 85% improvement at Level for 1-5 (inclusive) in cats with 42.9%, showing a Level 5 response of either a return to normal or virtually normal. 

This study indicates the clinical benefit of employing HomeoPet Joint Relief in the treatment of arthritic animals (sprains are also included here) either with or without the use of conventional medication.  It offers a way to delay the use of medications with side effects, or even potential side effects, while still alleviating the patient’s clinical signs.  There were no adverse side effects from the homeopathic remedy during the entire trial period, and the reduction in the use of conventional anti-inflammatory medications actually resulted in an overall reduction of side effects caused by those medications during the trial period, particularly with the digestive and renal systems in this trial (more recent use also indicates a similar benefit for the hepatic system where the reduction of anti-inflammatory medications impacts on this system).  For owners who wish to use natural medications there is an additional benefit as this is not just an option, but one that shows great benefit in clinical practice.