The Richard Hughes Memorial Lecture 2025

Homeopathy Research in Context – 20 Years of Debate and Counting

The homeopathy sector has been under attack from anti-homeopathy campaigners since 2005. Throughout this period, the Homeopathy Research Institute (HRI) has been actively engaged in the debate, correcting misinformation and clarifying the true status of the evidence base for homeopathy by objectively examining both its strengths and weaknesses.

Whilst HRI continues to monitor the evolving evidence base, in recent years, a particular aspect of the debate came to the forefront, i.e. the potential for bias and misinterpretation to occur if data is not put into sufficient and appropriate context. This presentation will, therefore not only consider the overall status of clinical research in homeopathy in 2025 but also put these latest findings in context by direct comparison with the evidence base for conventional medicine.

What emerges from this analysis is that the field of homeopathy research is far more ‘normal’ than most people appreciate: our sector faces similar challenges to those being faced by conventional medical researchers and, crucially, the current level of clinical evidence for homeopathy is similar to that for many conventional medical treatments.

As we also take a look back at the debate surrounding the evidence base from 2005 to 2025, what also emerges is the remarkable resilience of the homeopathy sector – something worthy of acknowledgment in its own right.