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 developmentaldelay, most patients have speech and social developmental delay. Recently, complementarymedicine like homeopathy has been used in the treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders. Thisstudy has been conducted to determine the effect of adding homeopathic treatment to rehabilitationon speech and social development of children with spastic cerebral palsy.Material Methods: This study was a double blind clinical trial. Twenty-four subjects wererecruited from a clinic in Tehran during 2004. In this study, minimization technique was used andsubjects were divided into case and control groups. The routine rehabilitation techniques wereperformed for 4 months in both groups. The control group received placebo and the case grouphomeopathy drugs. The subjects were 1-5 years old with spastic cerebral palsy, speech and socialdevelopmental delay. Level of speech and social development were assessed by DenverDevelopmental 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 monthsrespectively. The level of speech and social development in the case group in comparison with thecontrol 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 speechand social development of CP children. Regarding the proved effects of homeopathy mentioned indifferent articles on the developmental status of children with CP, it is not possible to reject theeffects of homeopathy on speech and social development of children with CP.