Prevalence of post-covid complications in a follow-up survey of participants of two Homoeopathy-based RCTs on moderate and severe cases of COVID-19: A cross-sectional study (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a global pandemic by WHO on 11th March 2020. Witnessing the pattern of relapse of cases, varying severity of cases and persistence of symptoms through different waves of pandemic has emerged as the reason for the studies targeting post-covid status of individuals. OBJECTIVE The objective of this survey was to assess the long-term effectiveness of homoeopathic medicines when used as an adjunct therapy along with the conventional therapy during covid infection in oxygen-dependent, moderate and severe patients. METHODS The survey was carried out from 1st April 2022 to 29 May 2022 via telephonic conversation among 219 participants who were discharged from AIIMS, Jhajjar, Haryana and St. George Hospital, Mumbai, India and had participated in two different placebo-controlled, randomized trials held at these two hospitals where individualized homoeopathic medicines were given to the experimental groups in addition to the conventional treatment. The post-COVID-19 Functional Status (PCFS) Scale was employed to evaluate the functional status of the surviving survey participants and to compare the status between the add-on Homoeopathy (AoH) group and the add-on placebo (AoP) group. RESULTS The mean score of PCFS Scale between the groups were compared using the chi-square test, which was presumed to be statistically significant at P CONCLUSIONS Homoeopathy, when given as an add-on therapy in COVID-19, helps in faster recovery from acute infections such as COVID19, witha higher proportion of participants being able to perform daily chores, along with an improvement in their general weakness, even after the meidicine was discontinued., This proved the long term effectiveness of homoeopathic treatment when used as an adjunct therapy along with the conventional therapy in the oxygen-dependent, moderate or severe patients of COVID-19. CLINICALTRIAL As it was a survey, the trial registration was not mandatory.