Kent’s Third Observation as a Clinical Validation Tool in the Treatment of Chronic Diseases

Abstract

The Kent’s third observation states that, where the aggravation is quick, short and strong,there is rapid improvement of the patient which means that whenever an aggravation comes quickly, is short and has been more or less vigorous, then the improvement of the patient will be long. This was considered as most desirable for cure of acute and chronic miasmatic disease. Objectives:(i)To understand the prognosis of the patient under the homoeopathic treatment (ii)To categorise the patients during follow up interview in two groups- one as that of homoeopathic aggravation and second as that of adverse events.(iii) To assess whether 3rd observation proves to be curative in treatment of chronic diseases or not. Materials and methods: Demographic data and clinical data in the form of symptoms were collected from patients as per inclusion criteria from OPD and IPD of Nehru Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital, New Delhi, between November 2019 to November 2020. Segregation of patients having shown aggravation in first follow-up was done as per the pre-defined literature. Results: Out of 30 patients,26 patients (86.66%) having homoeopathic aggravation showed long lasting improvement and 4 patients (13.33%) showed two types of outcomes that is adverse events in form of medicinal aggravation and disease aggravation. The calculated chi-square (X2) value, 9.80 lies between 9.24 and 11.07. The corresponding probability is 0.10<P<0.05 for degrees of freedom (df =5). This is greater than conventionally accepted significance level of 0.10% and smaller than 0.05%. Conclusion: Kent’s third observation is a useful prognostic tool in the assessment of the patients suffering from chronic disease leading to prolonged amelioration.