Will Vancea, Karl Wegscheiderb, Stefan N. WillichObjectives - To evaluate the effectiveness of homoeopathy versus conventional treatment in routine care.Design - Comparative cohort study.Setting - Patients with selected chronic diagnoses were enrolled in medical practice.Interventions - Conventional treatment or homeopathy.Outcome measures - Severity of symptoms assessed by patients and physicians (visual rating scale, 0–10) at baseline, 6 and 12 months and costs.Results - The analyses of 493 patients (315 adults, 178 children) indicated greater improvement in patients’ assessments after homoeopathic versus conventional treatment (adults: homeopathy from 5.7 to 3.2; conventional, 5.9–4.4; p = 0.002; children from 5.1 to 2.6 and from 4.5 to 3.2). Physician assessments were also more favourable for children who had received homoeopathic treatment (4.6–2.0 and 3.9–2.7; p < 0.001). Overall costs showed no significant differences between both treatment groups (adults, €2155 versus €2013, p = 0.856; children, €1471 versus €786, p = 0.137).Conclusion - Patients seeking homoeopathic treatment had a better outcome overall compared with patients on conventional treatment, whereas total costs in both groups were similar.