Abstract

A RANDOMISED CONTROLLED TRIAL TO EVALUATE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SIMILLIMUM AS AN ADJUVANT TO STANDARD CARE ON ANGER, AND HYPERTENSION AGAINST STANDARD CARE FOR HYPERTENSION ALONE

Background: Hypertension constitutes an important public health issue affecting more than 30% of the world’s population. 76% of adult patients diagnosed with hypertension have sub-optimally regulated Blood Pressure (BP) despite appropriate medication and lifestyle changes. Essential Hypertension (EHT) is a psychosomatic and polyetiological disease which may positively correlate with anger variables. Also, it has been studied that a positive family history of hypertension is commonly found in hypertensive patients, with heritability varying between 35% and 50%. Homeopathy helps holistically correcting all these factors. Even homeopathic case-taking seems to have a therapeutic influence on patients’ mental states.
Methods: 1187 individuals were screened, from that 295 people were found to have essential HTN, confirmed by basic laboratory investigations, and 172 eligible subjects, 108 men & 64 women (86 cases and 86 controls), were enrolled after taking voluntary, informed consent. They were divided into 2 groups by simple randomisation. More than 50% of patients in both arms were already on Anti-Hypertensive Treatment (AHT) before enrolment. In the remaining subjects, AHT was prescribed to participants having stage 2 HTN. A thorough homoeopathic case history was taken, and the STAXI-2 scale was applied at the beginning of the study and after six months to measure the change in anger.
Results: In the intervention arm, the BP of the patients who were not on AHT remained under control while on a simillimum. However,16% of patients in the control arm had to be prescribed standard antihypertensive treatment AHT as their BP escalated. Of the patients in the control arm, who were already on standard AHT, 98% continued with the same dose of AHT. However, in the intervention group, standard AHT was stopped in 33% of the patients, and the dose was reduced by 28%. Reduction in blood pressure and anger variables in both arms at the end of the study period were statistically significant (p=0.001) with a 95% confidence interval but was greater in the treatment arm. In the treatment group, 39.5% of participants with a positive family history of HTN, there were statistically significant higher values in the trait anger variables [Females: mean difference of 6.11 units (p=0.01, 95% confidence interval); Males: mean difference of 4.63 units (p=0.01, 95% confidence interval)]. Along with anger expression variable [Females: mean difference of 5.2 units (p=0.03, 95% confidence interval) Males: mean difference of 5.31 units (p=0.02, 95% confidence interval)].
Conclusion: It was observed that the EHT patients with a family history of HTN had higher angry dispositions and tended to suppress their anger & hostile impulses. A statistically significant reduction in anger and blood pressure variables was found in the participants of both groups. But the reduction in anger and BP variables was significantly higher in the treatment group, suggesting that adjuvant individualised homeopathy might be useful in reducing anger and, thereby, hypertension.

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