A L B Rutten

..Statistics help to get more objective criteria, but we still need to reach consensus about how to handle probabilities of outcomes of our assessments...

..Frequently occurring symptoms with opposite poles like 'Cold ameliorates/aggravates' are regarded valuable for homeopathic practice, but are insufficiently assessed and impossible to handle with conventional repertorisation...

..Only by keeping an open mind towards other paradigms and all possible hypotheses can a low Bayesian prior be elevated to the point of accepting a new paradigm, this is more relevant than Bayesian calculations...

..Important data were not mentioned in Shang et al's paper, but only provided subsequently...

..In this paper we introduce statistical arguments for introducing or discarding entries from the repertory...

..Hitherto entries have been added to a rubric in the repertory when patients responding well to a specific medicine showed the corresponding symptom. Continuing like this, theoretically every medicine will eventually appear in every rubric...

..Adopting Bayesian methodology opens the possibility of investigating homeopathy in everyday practice and of describing some aspects of homeopathy in conventional terms...

..Bayesian methods can improve this and expand the possibilities of the repertory including the possibility of interpreting the absence of expected symptoms...

..Entries in repertory rubrics can be validated, but must still be handled carefully. Prospective research is the only acceptable way. Software to support this research must be carefully designed to export correct data...

..This is also a good opportunity to correct structural shortcomings of the repertory, for instance, entries should be based on systematic analysis of materia medica instead of casual observations...

..Weakening the standard to enlarge the research population will seriously bias the results. The same gold standard should be used in LR assessment of all symptoms...

..The assessment does not influence clinical practice and can be maintained for a long period, provided the appropriate software is used. A limited range of symptoms seems most suitable for LR investigation...

..There is a difference between quantitative and qualitative vagueness. Vague data cause problems if we try to prove a hypothesis because of expectation bias. We assess likelihood ratio of homeopathic symptoms only to improve the method...

..Patients treated with homeopathy may respond to infrequently used or even 'new' medicines. But does the introduction of an unlimited number of (new) medicines improve homeopathy? Do new medicines solve old problems?..

..In homeopathy, signs and symptoms guide the doctor when prescribing appropriate medicines but the powers of these indicators are largely based on common experience...

..Using a semi-standardised treatment protocol, we aimed to improve homeopathic management of targeted subgroups of women with premenstrual syndrome/symptoms (PMS/S)...

..These considerations already indicate some shortcomings in the representation of rare remedies and the use of grading in the current repertories...