Homoeopathy growing at 20 to 25 per cent worldwide: Study

New Delhi, Aug 2 (UNI) With lifestyle and stress-related diseases on the rise across the country, more and more people are turning to homoeopathy, a holistic form of medicine, for treatment, which is charting an annual growth of around 20 to 25 per cent.

Homoeopathy has emerged as the second largest system of medicine in the world, market for which by 2017 is estimated to be equivalent to the current alternative healthcare market of Rs 52,000 crore.

According to a recent research, conducted by A C Neilsen to gauge the potential of the study and patient behaviour analysis, homoeopathy is a Rs 630 crore market in India and the world sale of its drugs accounts to Rs 8,400 crore.

The study, commissioned by Dr Batra's Positive Health Clinic and conducted across seven cities in which 650 people were interviewed, 48 per cent people believe that homoeopathy is safe and 40 per cent believe that it keeps the situation under control.

In Delhi, 55 per cent people consider homoeopathy as a preferred choice of treatment only if they are referred to by friends and relatives.

Talking to reporters, Dr Mukesh Batra, CMD, Dr Batra's PHC, said the objectives of the study was to understand the patient psychographics regarding chronic aliments and to determine the psychographics of conventional treatments as against homoeopathy.

''Homoeopathy is often approached as a last resort when all other treatments have failed... Due to this , the duration of the treatment increases since the ailment reaches an advanced stage,''he added.

The research, conducted on recent sufferers of any one of the chronic ailments--hair and skin, arthritis, allergies, diabetes and obesity-- focused on the friction between conventional medicine and homoeopathy and highlighted that people opt for allopathy because it enjoys top-of mind recall-- 59 per cent-- and has immediate results --56 per cent.

Also patients choose homoeopathy because it is safe 53 per cent or is recommended by friends and relatives while 20 per cent of thepopulation who had never tried allopathy would opt for it because it provides quick relief and solutions for all problems.

It also pointed out that while 62 per cent of the current homoeopathy users have never tried allopathy, 82 per cent of homoeopathy users would not switch to conventional treatments.

''If a person enrolls for homoeopathic treatment in the early stages of his problem, it is less likely that he would want to switch to conventional treatments,'' Dr Batra said.

The research said 51 per cent of thepeople suffering from chronic ailments try home remedies and 30 per cent prefer to leave it unattended.

''Recurrent use of self-medication and ignorance of proper treatment could lead to severe consequences. Twenty six per cent of the people resort to medical intervention, of which 47 per cent people visit their family doctor or general practitioner,'' it said.

While 18 per cent resort to conventional treatments, 34 per cent visit a homoeopath if their ailment is chronic.

UNI