Experiencia de la consulta homeopática de un programa docente en Costa Rica, 2003-2007. Un enfoque de atención holística

objectives: to describe the experience, clinical methods and patients characteristics seen during homeopathic consultation. methods: the present is a descriptive study of 83 total clinical records. the following qualitative variables were analyzed (sex, marriage status, occupation, education, residence, religion, referral manner, physical an psychic consultation reasons, diagnosis or problems). quantitative variables were: age, duration of first consultation, number of complaints at consultation, comparison between number of complaints for consultation with diagnosis / problems, total number of consultations, number and cost of homeopathic medications and results of the application of the glasgow homoeopathic hospital outcome scale. data was obtained from the clinical records, and then analyzed with the spps software 12.0 version. central tendency measures, frequencies and proportions were obtained. results: 83 patients were seen, during the study period, ranging from 5 months to 83 years of age, average 38 years. there was female sex majority, and 79% were adult. fifty seven percent attended on their own will, 28% were referred by physicians or nurses. eighty one percent consulted because of physical problems, however after establishing a medical diagnosis, those diminished around 50% but psycho-physical health problems increased 8 times. the average of the first consultation was 66 minutes; the number of consultations was 2 and 3 the medications per person. the average cost of the prescriptions was ￠ 1 946.00 (aprox. 3 us dollars) per patient. conclusions: there is a demand for homeopathic consultation in pavas district that should be investigated. the holistic therapeutic approach identified health problems in patients, that they did not report at the initial consultation. the results obtained coincidence in some aspects, with other international investigations in the field of clinical homeopathic practice.