Medicine is an inclusive system and Homeopathy, as a holistic therapeutic system, must be practiced by physicians. Undertaking the medical responsibility of a patient as a whole (holistically) implies the competent and thorough knowledge provided by medical education.
However, the medical community's stubborn refusal to wean itself from its dependency on the chemical pharmaceutical industry leaves a huge therapeutic gap.

Homeopathic medicine can offer therapeutic solutions for a variety of chronic diseases where conventional medicine provides only relief, delaying actual progress, or simply transfers the problem to other body systems through the side effects of chemical treatments. Homeopathy simply heals many chronic, persistent and multifactorial, autoimmune, degenerative and psycho-dependent diseases, as well as psychological disorders, through gentle and safe means. This therapeutic efficacy, as well as the increased overall psychosomatic wellness and creativity that it offers, have led to a dynamic public shift toward alternative medicine and Homeopathy in particular. This is especially true in our digital age with the internet's expansion and rapid dissemination of information.

Given the medical community's disregard and reluctance to embrace this dynamic popular shift toward alternative medicine and homeopathy, the services of unqualified holistic and "homeopathic" therapists who are not physicians are often sought. This is indicative of a social dynamic, but it poses significant dangers. Homeopathy's ability to heal is largely due to the holistic approach (approaching a person as a biological, psychological and social entity), so a non-doctor homeopath is simply less holistic.

Homeopathy and alternative medicine is in danger of being demoted to adjuvant therapy with all that this implies for its therapeutic impact and social benefits. On the other hand, all these non-doctor therapists, at least those with a university education, could contribute significantly to the spread of an alternative and holistic approach. Any professional or social group is entitled to protect its interests. However when it does not consider the overall reality, or public interest and fails to serve the interests of general public health, it easily degenerates into a harmful and manipulative practice. At this point, the accepted Psychiatrist – clinical Psychologist relationship model could be a starting point for institutional, as well as substantive discussion. In this model, the suitably trained clinical psychologist practices therapeutic counselling, while the responsibility and right to prescribe medication is exclusively reserved to the Psychiatrist as a physician.
The bigger question still remains. Will our medical community keep pace with Holistic Homeopathy, or fall out of touch with developments and social dynamics?

The news from the other side of the Atlantic is encouraging.
It is no coincidence that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, (which has so often been accused of biased "shielding" of chemical-pharmaceutical companies and "war" against alternative therapies and methods) recently outdid itself, approving electromagnetic therapy for depression and cancer, specifically for the treatment of brain cancer (glioblastoma, a highly invasive form of cancer) in adults, following chemotherapy.

A series of articles published over the past two years in one of the American Medical Association's journals under the title "Less is more", stresses the fact that misuse of medical treatments can result in damage, while implementation of fewer and milder treatments can lead to improved health.

It is no mystery that this shift toward maturity on behalf of the medical community is influenced by the recent economic crisis. An entire network of doctors, pharmaceutical and insurance companies and every type of middleman, sucked incredible amounts of money from state economies, in the name of routine treatments of dubious effectiveness. It became clear that this gold mine was not inexhaustible. This confirms the saying that every crisis is also an opportunity for change and reform.
Increasingly in our times, the industrial consumer development model and reductive scientific thinking, reveal their deadlocks and deficiencies. The recent economic crisis, the ecological crisis, as well as a crisis of ethics and meanings, are three of the consequences. However, there is an alternative: the holistic, participatory and ecological model.

An example of the holistic model in the health sector is alternative, holistic medicine, mainly embodied by Homeopathic Medicine.

Homeopathy's personal philosophy (emphasis is given to the constitution of the patient rather than the disease) is not consistent with the mass consumer industrial model. Then again, the holistic approach has offered often-unexpected treatment solutions for chronic, persistent diseases and its more extensive use could save organizations and patients from unnecessary polypharmacy and the vicious circle of side effects resulting from chemical drugs.

Sources:

http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=415863
http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=225309
http://www.tovima.gr/science/article/?aid=329588
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=185157
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/06/health/views/06depress.html?scp=2&sq=ssri&st=cse&_r=0
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Mainstream-Medicine-Goes-A-by-Jeffrey-Dach-100513-843.html
http://www.otyposnews.gr/archives/20981#axzz2Q3YhyX00

Konstantinos Fytopoulos
(Psychiatrist - Psychotherapist - Homoeopathist)