Nearly three quarters of French people are opposed to the derogation of homeopathic products, according to an Ipsos survey for the homeopathic laboratories Boiron, Weleda and Lehning. Professionals for and against the measure engage in a real showdown in the media. Homeopathic doctors fear for the future of their specialty.

The French have a good image of homeopathy, according to an Ipsos poll relayed by Le Parisien Thursday, November 8. Against anxiety, muscle pain or cold, 77% of French have already resorted to homeopathy. 74% of them are against a possible derogation.

The survey was conducted among 2,000 people for Weleda, Lehning and Boiron laboratories, who are therefore directly interested in the question. The survey also reveals that almost one in two has been using homeopathy for nearly fourteen years. Today, reimbursement is covered at 30% by health insurance.

Doctors clash

"It is clear that the cessation of any reimbursement generates an opposition of opinion but it is still related to the benefits that the French say derive from homeopathy, which has a real anchoring in their care practice , " says Luc Barthélémy, health director of the polling institute. "Patients do not come by faith but because it heals them," Christine Bertin-Belot, a homeopathic doctor in Besançon, adds.

The tension keeps rising between the pro and anti homeopathic doctors. In July, 124 health professionals published a forum in Le Figaro to warn about so-called "alternative" medicines like homeopathy and to demand the exclusion of these disciplines from the medical field. The National Union of Homeopathic Physicians (SNMHF) filed a complaint for non-confraternity.

Fight against the "Fake Med"

Doctors against homeopathy have formed an association against Fake Med (fake medicine) and have taken a lawyer to coordinate their actions. "We want to bring the debate to the scientific level and to question the public, saying that the reflex homeopathy can create delays in taking care of certain pathologies," says the spokesman of the collective.

Homeopathic doctor Mourad Benabdallah, for his part, launched a petition after the suspension in September of the university diploma of the specialty in Lille. 33,000 signatures were collected. But these quarrels do not seem to reach patients who consider 71% that homeopathy is not in opposition to "conventional" but complementary drugs.