Worst Cases Reported to the NAFKAM International Registry of Exceptional Courses of Disease.

The National Research Center in Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NAFKAM) International Registry of Exceptional Courses of Disease (the Registry) related to the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has to date received 5 reports of exceptionally “worst” courses of disease from patients who have attributed their negative health experience to the use of CAM. The monitoring of unfavorable outcomes related to CAM treatment is seen by NAFKAM as important to ensure that treatments offered are associated with low risk of harm. This is particularly important when the conditions patients suffer from are not life threatening. If the Registry receives 3 negative reports of patients using the same treatment for the same condition, a “warning” is submitted to the health authorities. The same is done after only one report if the condition is life threatening. Three of the 5 patients had been diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME), and all of them have related their unfavorable outcomes to the treatment method called Lightning Process (LP), a 3-day training program designed by British osteopath Phil Parker.1 They had all followed the recommendation given by the LP instructors during the treatment to ignore what they sensed as their bodies' symptoms of being pushed too hard. The patients had been diagnosed with CFS/ME 10, 2, and 7 years, respectively, before attending the LP treatment. Six to 12 months after the treatment, all 3 experienced a strong relapse of their CFS/ME symptoms. One patient expressed that “to follow the advice from the LP instructor eventually became a direct risk to my health.” The other 2 patients had both been treated with homeopathy. The first patient had sought homeopathic treatment for sinusitis problems and a desire to reduce her conventional medication. After using homeopathic treatment for 1 year, she was diagnosed with a necrotizing vasculitis, and she believes that she might have been diagnosed and treated earlier had she sought conventional treatment. The other patient had sought homeopathic treatment for prostatitis symptoms and used homeopathic remedies for this condition in combination with chemotherapy for hemato-logic cancer. He reports a number of symptoms (vision coordination problems, tinnitus, memory loss, and hiatal hernia) that he ascribes to an interaction between the homeopathic remedy and the chemotherapy. The 3 “worst” cases reported with regard to LP are consistent, and there is reason to suspect a causal relationship. The 2 other reports are less specific and will need to be supported by additional cases before any conclusions can be drawn.