I took data from 100 patients – simply the first 100 patients that my computer threw up as having anxiety and/or depression.  Almost all of those people had other problems too – ranging from food intolerance’s, to skin problems, hormonal problems and even heart problems.  I decided to include that within my research too as homeopathy is, after all a holistic medicine.

These are my findings:

ANXIETY

“The feeling rushes into my chest, I get hot, my mouth is dry, panic sets in, my head is flooded with it, feels confused, cannot focus.  I can’t think straight”.

Of those 100 people, 55 people suffered with anxiety, 9 of which were children.

54 of those suffered with other health problems, (one child only had anxiety and no other health issues).

On their follow up consultation (usually 4-6 weeks after the first visit) 52 of those people felt that their anxiety was significantly better, and 51 people saw an improvement in other areas too.  After 2 months 40 people said they felt they were at least 70% better.  One person saw no improvement at all.

The most common remedy prescribed in this group was Calcarea-carbonica, but I still only gave that to 6 of those 55 people. 

All 9 of the children were included in the 70% improved.

DEPRESSION

“I want to drop off the end of the earth, just get away from that manic feeling of having no control and feeling very oppressed”

14 of those 100 people suffered with depression, 2 of which were children.

All of those 14 people had other health problems which I took into account.

On their follow up visits 13 of the people saw some improvement in their depression, after two months 12 of those considered it to be at least a 70% improvement.  9 of the people reported that other ailments had improved too alongside the depression.  1 person saw no improvement at all in their health after 2 months.  Both of the children in this group had an improvement of at least 70%.

No one remedy was prescribed more than another here, although Arsenicum, Phosphorous and Calcarea-carbonica were all prescribed to 2 people in the group.

ANXIETY & DEPRESSION

“My mind never stops.  There’s people in my head telling me things, confusing me – about everything, putting doubt in my mind”. 

30 of those 100 people suffered with both anxiety and depression and all of them reported other health problems as well.  There was only one child in this group.

On their follow up visits 18 people reported a significant improvement in either their anxiety or their depression and 10 reported an improvement in both.  2 people said they saw no improvement at all.  After 2 months 13 said they had an at least 70% improvement in either the anxiety or depression and 5 said they were overall at least 70% better, again the one child was in this latter group of being at least 70% better overall.  All 28 people who felt they saw improvement also saw improvement with other health problems they’d had.

Sepia was the most prescribed remedy given in this group, but I saw that as a reflection more of the other problems people were suffering with – a lot of hormonal problems and chronic fatigue went along with anxiety and depression and Sepia is also a good remedy for those. 

SUMMARY

First, it took quite a while to gather all this information and a few phone calls to find out how some people felt.  The results were much better than I had imagined because when somebody doesn’t return to me I imagine there’s probably been very little improvement, but doing this I made at least 3 phone calls where I was told that the improvement had been so great after one consultation that they saw no need to return.  A few others said it had helped and they had just not got round to booking in again as they were OK.  I’m also happy to report that some of these 100 people have returned to me over many years and continue to remain healthy and see improvement in their health.

I was also interested that the success rate with children was 100% – on these 100 randomly picked cases at least.  In many respects children are easier to treat – often they haven’t had any drug suppression so what you see is what you get and also life hasn’t knocked them about yet so the things that are important for me to know are right there as the only information available.

Unfortunately 4 people felt there was no improvement at all.  Looking at their notes, 2 of them visited only once (and I had to call them to see how they were) and 2 of those came back to give me a second chance at prescribing a different remedy – and they still reported no, or very little improvement.  I’m very sorry to those 4, I’d like to think I could help them given another chance, although checking through their cases again I still would agree with my remedy choice already made – which is clearly wrong!  Overall, the statistics are still very good though.  If I was clever enough and had a mathematical brain I’m sure I could now give you a lovely chart or graph showing the results.  Instead I leave you with a few comments from my lovely patients on their return visits:

“The last remedy was fabulous – I felt more together, happier, bouncy, like it had taken a cloud off me – the best thing was I felt very loving and happy, calmer, peaceful – I was much nicer to live with.”

“Once the depression cleared I felt amazing, so much more confident, not so worried about what other people would think of me.”

“I felt very calm, relaxed after the remedy, I usually feel very overwhelmed with everything but I felt better straight away and it’s only just starting to get a bit worse.  I’d say an 80% improvement over the last couple of months which is incredible”