Homoeopathy for delayed onset muscle soreness: a randomised double blind placebo controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE To pilot a model for determining whether a homoeopathic medicine is superior to placebo for delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). DESIGN Randomised double blind placebo controlled trial. SETTING Physiotherapy department of a homoeopathic hospital. SUBJECTS Sixty eight healthy volunteers (average age 30; 41% men) undertook a 10 minute period of bench stepping carrying a small weight and were randomised to a homoeopathic medicine or placebo. OUTCOME MEASURES Mean muscle soreness in the five day period after the exercise test, symptom free days, maximum soreness score, days to no soreness, days on medication. RESULTS The difference between group means was 0.17 in favour of placebo with 95% confidence intervals +/- 0.50. Similar results were found for other outcome measures. CONCLUSION The study did not find benefit of the homoeopathic remedy in DOMS. Bench stepping may not be an appropriate model to evaluate the effects of a treatment on DOMS because of wide variation between subject soreness scores.