Homoeopathy for delayed onset muscle soreness: a randomised double blind placebo controlled trial

Objective-To pilot a model for determining whether a homoeopathic medicine is superior to placebo for delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). Design-Randomised double blind placebo controlled trial. Setting-Physiotherapy department of a homoeopathic hospital. Subjects-Sixty eight healthy volunteers (average age 30; 41% men) undertook a 10 minute period of bench stepping carrying a small weight and were randomised to a homoeopathic medicine or placebo. Outcome measures-Mean muscle soreness in the five day period after the exercise test, symptom free days, maximum soreness score, days to no soreness, days on medication. Results-The difference between group means was 0.17 in favour of placebo with 95% confidence intervals +/-0.50. Similar results were found for other outcome measures. Conclusion-The study did not find benefit of the homoeopathic remedy in DOMS. Bench stepping may not be an appropriate model to evaluate the effects of a treatment on DOMS because of wide variation between subject soreness scores.