OBJECTIVE:
To use scientific methods to evaluate 2 claims made by practitioners of alternative medicine.

DESIGN:
A placebo-controlled, double-blind study of homeopathy in children with warts, and a cohort study of the influence of lunar phases on postoperative outcome in surgical patients.

SETTING:
Outpatients of a dermatology department (homeopathy study) and inpatients evaluated at an anesthesiology department (lunar phases).

SUBJECTS:
Sixty volunteers for the homeopathy study and 14,970 consecutive patients undergoing surgery under general anesthesia for the lunar phase study.

INTERVENTIONS:
Treatment of children with warts with individually selected homeopathic preparations (homeopathic study); surgical procedures including abdominal, vascular, cardiac, thoracic, plastic, and orthopedic operations and assessment of the lunar phase at the time of operation (lunar phase study).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:
Reduction of area occupied by warts by at least 50% within 8 weeks; death from any cause within 30 days after surgery.

RESULTS:
Nine of 30 subjects in the homeopathy group and 7 of 30 subjects in the placebo group experienced at least 50% reduction in area occupied by warts (chi 2 = 0.34; P = .56); the mortality rate was 1.20% in patients operated on during waxing moon and 1.33% in patients operated on during waning moon (chi 2 = 0.49; P = .50).

CONCLUSIONS:
Statements and methods of alternative medicine--as far as they concern observable clinical phenomena--can be tested by scientific methods.

Smolle, J. et al. Arch Dermatol 1998 Nov;134(11):1368-70.