Abstract
Objective The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of homoeopathic mother tincture Sarothamnus scoparius in the management of essential hypertension.
Materials and Methods An open label, prospective, single arm, clinical trial was conducted on 35 participants recruited from outpatient department/inpatient department of a Govt. Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital. All participants received Sarothamnus scoparius mother tincture, suffering from essential hypertension. The primary outcome was to evaluate the change in systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) every month for 3 months and the secondary outcome was to assess the QOL of the patient by using WHOQOL-BREF at baseline and after 3 months. The primary outcome and secondary outcome measures were analysed by repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA) and ‘Paired t-test’ respectively.
Result Twenty-nine participants completed the study and six participants dropped out. Intention-to-treat sample (n = 35) was analysed. There was statistically significant reduction in SBP (146.40 ± 7.65 to 128.00 ± 12.34) as well as DBP (88.80 ± 3.26 to 86.07 ± 3.307). Repeated measure ANOVA was performed to compare the changes in SBP as well as DBP at different time interval. In SBP, the result was statistically significant on all occasions (p = 0.000, at 95% confidence interval [CI]). In DBP, the result was also found statistically significant (p = 0.000, at 95% CI). However, the result was not statistically significant when DBP was compared at 1 month with 2nd and 3rd months (p = 1.000, at 95% CI); 2 months with 1 and 3 months (p = 1.000, 0.863 at 95% CI respectively); 2 months with 3 months (p = 0.518, at 95% CI); and 3 months with 1 and 2 months (p = 1.000, 0.863 at 95% CI respectively).
Paired t-test performed to measure the changes in WHOQOL-BREF score showed statistically significant (62.57 ± 10.81 to 96.07 ± 17.47; p = 0.000, at 95% CI).
Conclusion The study findings suggest that Sarothamnus scoparius mother tincture is beneficial in the management of essential hypertension as well as improving QOL. Randomised controlled trials are further warranted.
Keywords
hypertension - Sarothamnus scoparius - homoeopathy - systolic blood pressure - diastolic blood pressure - WHOQOL-BREF
