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Niels Bentzen

Publications and source records attributed to Niels Bentzen.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Why do parents take their children to homeopaths? -- an exploratory qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: There has been a threefold increase in the proportion of children among patients visiting homeopaths in Norway from 1985 to 1998. As no study has investigated the reasons for this increase, the aim of the present study was to explore why parents take their children to homeopaths. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: In this qualitative study, parents who had taken their child to a homeopath for the first time during the last 3 months were interviewed in depth using a semi-structured interview guide. The interviews were analysed using thematic analysis based on techniques from grounded theory. RESULTS: 9 parents were interviewed. Parents consulted a medical doctor to clarify how serious their child's health condition was, and sought treatment from a homeopath if the symptoms were not dangerous. Personal recommendations or personal experience of homeopathy were identified as being a main factor that triggered seeking treatment specifically from a homeopath. The reasons they sought an alternative, or rather complement, to conventional medical treatment were: they did not wish to give their child allopathic medication; they wanted to find an alternative treatment to their child's currently prescribed allopathic medication; they had ceased conventional medication due to its side effects; to obtain treatment whilst waiting for a problem to be assessed; or they were not offered any treatment by their medical doctor. CONCLUSION: Parents took their child to a homeopath due to experiences with the medical encounter or treatment and due to recommendations or own personal experience.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Homeopathic care for the prevention of upper respiratory tract infections in children: a pragmatic, randomised, controlled trial comparing individualised homeopathic care and waiting-list controls.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether individualised treatment by homeopaths is effective in preventing childhood upper respiratory tract infection (URTI). METHODS: Open, pragmatic, randomised parallel-group trial with waiting-list group as control. One hundred and sixty-nine children below the age of 10 years, recruited by post from children previously diagnosed with URTI, were randomly assigned to receive either pragmatic homeopathic care from one of five homeopaths for 12 weeks or to a waiting-list control using self-selected, conventional health care. RESULT: There was a significant difference in median total symptom score in favour of homeopathic care (24 points) compared to the control group (44 points) (p = 0.026). The difference in the median number of days with URTI symptoms was statistically significant with 8 days in the homeopathic group and 13 days in the control group (p = 0.006). There was no statistical difference in the use of conventional medication or care between the two groups. CONCLUSION: In this study, there was a clinically relevant effect of individualised homeopathic care in the prevention of URTI in children.

Child↗
PubMed2005

Self treatment with one of three self selected, ultramolecular homeopathic medicines for the prevention of upper respiratory tract infections in children. A double-blind randomized placebo controlled trial.

AIMS: Homeopathic medicines are frequently purchased over the counter (OTC). Respiratory complaints are the most frequent reason for such purchases. Children with upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) are frequent users of homeopathy. This study investigates the effect of self treatment with one of three self selected ultramolecular homeopathic medicines for the prevention of childhood URTI. METHODS: A double-blind randomized parallel group placebo controlled trial was carried out in 251 children below the age of 10 years, recruited by post from those previously diagnosed with URTI when attending a casualty department. The children were randomly assigned to receive either placebo or ultramolecular homeopathic medicines in C-30 potency (diluted 10(-60)) administered twice weekly for 12 weeks. Parents chose the medicine based on simplified constitutional indications for the three medicines most frequently prescribed by Norwegian homeopaths for this group of patients. The main outcome measure relates to the prevention of new episodes of URTI measured with median total symptom score over 12 weeks. RESULTS: There was no difference in the predefined primary outcome between the two groups (P = 0.733). Median URTI scores over 12 weeks in the homeopathic medicine group were 26.0 (95% confidence interval (CI) 16.3, 43.7) and for placebo 25.0 (95% CI 14.2, 38.4). There was no statistical difference between the two groups in median number of days with URTI symptoms or in the use of conventional medication/care. CONCLUSIONS: In this study there was no effect over placebo for self treatment with one of three self selected, ultramolecular homeopathic medicines in preventing childhood URTI. This can be due to the lack of effect of the highly diluted homeopathic medicines or the process of selection and type of medicines.

Child↗
PubMed2004

Family medicine research: implications for Wonca.

The purpose of the article is to illustrate where in the lifelong curriculum of family medicine ought students, trainees, and family physicians learn about research in family medicine. The role of Wonca to promote this endeavor is discussed. I describe the recruitment and training programs for family physicians and state the implication for Wonca to promote family medicine research in the undergraduate curriculum, during residency, and in the graduate study programs for experienced medical doctors. I describe the possible research fields in family medicine and the special methods that can be used to get reliable and valid answers to relevant questions in family medicine. It is time for Wonca to develop a policy for family medicine research by developing a strategy to promote it. This can be done through a Wonca policy statement about family medicine research in the medical curriculum. Wonca can, in collaboration with national colleges, arrange workshops and master classes in research; create scholarships and fellowships for international family medicine researchers; influence journals and international bodies, such as the World Health Organization, governments, and colleges about the necessity of good family medical research; describe ethical guidelines for international primary care research; and create a number of databases for researchers to use.

Biomedical Research↗
PubMed2004

Randomized controlled trials on treatment by homeopaths and self-treatment with homeopathic medicines: design and protocol.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: This study investigates (1) whether treatment by homeopaths is more efficacious than self-selected conventional health care and (2) whether self-treatment with self-selected homeopathic medicines is more efficacious than placebo in preventing childhood upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs). DESIGN: A four-arm randomized controlled trial involving two independent investigations, one open and pragmatic (evaluating the effect of treatment by homeopaths including homeopathic medicines) and one double-blinded (evaluating the effect of self-treatment with homeopathic medicine). PATIENTS: The planned sample size is 420 children below the age of 10, recruited by a postal invitation to all children diagnosed with URTIs when attending a casualty department in Trondheim, Norway. INTERVENTIONS: The children are randomly assigned to receive either (1) self-selected homeopathic medicine or placebo (270 patients), (2) treatment by one of four different homeopaths who could prescribe any homeopathic medicine (75 patients), or (3) waiting list control using self-selected conventional health care (75 patients). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Total URTI symptom scores from patients' diary over 12 weeks. PLAN: The results of these two studies (available at the end of 2004) have the potential to provide information about the efficacy of treatment by homeopaths independently from the efficacy of homeopathic medicines in children with URTIs.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The use of simplified constitutional indications for self-prescription of homeopathic medicine.

OBJECTIVES: To develop simplified constitutional indications for homeopathic medicines so that parents of children with recurrent upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) could choose homeopathic medicines for their children more "accurately", and to subsequently evaluate if these choices match the prescriptions of trained homeopaths. DESIGN AND SETTING: To initially select the most commonly used homeopathic medicines for URTI, data from a survey of 1097 patients visiting 80 different Norwegian homeopaths were used. A simplified constitutional indication was then developed for the three homeopathic medicines most frequently prescribed for recurrent URTI and otitis media. The constitutional indications were developed by a group of five homeopaths and were then sent to 20 homeopaths for further evaluation. To evaluate the parents' choice of homeopathic medicines compared to the prescription by trained homeopaths, a group of 11 randomly selected homeopaths were asked to participate. They recruited parents of 70 child patients. RESULT: By using simplified constitutional indications for the three most commonly prescribed remedies, Calcarea carb, Pulsatilla and Sulphur, parents were able to choose the same homeopathic medicine as homeopaths' prescribed for 55% (95% CI 43-67) of children with URTI. There was excellent agreement between parents' choice and homeopaths' prescription for the three medicines (Kappa of 0.77, p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Simplified constitutional indications can be used to improve the quality of the choice of homeopathic medicines purchased over the counter (OTC) for self-treatment.

Child, Preschool↗