The Effect of Adding Homeopathic Treatment to Rehabilitation on Speech and Social Development of Children with Cerebral Palsy

Objective: Cerebral palsy (CP) is a static encephalopathy. In addition to motor developmental delay, most patients have speech and social developmental delay. Recently, complementary medicine like homeopathy has been used in the treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders. This study has been conducted to determine the effect of adding homeopathic treatment to rehabilitation on speech and social development of children with spastic cerebral palsy. Material & Methods: This study was a double blind clinical trial. Twenty-four subjects were recruited from a clinic in Tehran during 2004. In this study, minimization technique was used and subjects were divided into case and control groups. The routine rehabilitation techniques were performed for 4 months in both groups. The control group received placebo and the case group homeopathy drugs. The subjects were 1-5 years old with spastic cerebral palsy, speech and social developmental delay. Level of speech and social development were assessed by Denver Developmental Screening Test II (DDST II) in the two beginning of the study and 4 months later. Findings: The average age, in the case and the control group was 28 and 28.4 months respectively. The level of speech and social development in the case group in comparison with the control group had no statistically significant difference (PV=0.17 and PV=1 respectively). Conclusion: Adding homeopathy to rehabilitation had no significant effect on the level of speech and social development of CP children. Regarding the proved effects of homeopathy mentioned in different articles on the developmental status of children with CP, it is not possible to reject the effects of homeopathy on speech and social development of children with CP.