Outcome of anthroposophic medication therapy in chronic disease: A 12-month prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND Anthroposophic medications (AMED) are prescribed in 56 countries. OBJECTIVE To study clinical outcomes in patients prescribed AMED for chronic disease. DESIGN Prospective cohort study. SETTING 110 medical practices in Germany. PARTICIPANTS 665 consecutive outpatients aged 1-71 years, prescribed AMED for mental, respiratory, musculoskeletal, neurological, genitourinary, and other chronic diseases. MAIN OUTCOMES Disease and Symptom Scores (physicians' and patients' assessment, 0-10) and SF-36. RESULTS During the first six months, an average of 1.5 AMED per patient was used, in total 652 different AMED. Origin of AMED was mineral (8.0% of 652 AMED), botanical (39.0%), zoological (7.2%), chemically defined (13.0%), and mixed (33.0%). From baseline to six-month-follow-up, all outcomes improved significantly: Disease Score improved by mean 3.15 points (95% confidence interval 2.97-3.34, p < 0.001), Symptom Score by 2.43 points (2.23-2.63, p < 0.001), SF-36 Physical Component Summary by 3.04 points (2.16-3.91, p < 0.001), and SF-36 Mental Component Summary by 5.75 points (4.59-6.92, p < 0.001). All improvements were maintained at 12-month follow-up. Improvements were similar in adult men and women, in children, and in patients not using adjunctive therapies. CONCLUSION Outpatients using AMED for chronic disease had long-term reduction of disease severity and improvement of quality of life.