The Menopause Project
In 1998 NIMH received a generous legacy to develop research into herbal practice. Julia Green FNIMH was appointed as research coordination and, after many discussions in the team, a pilot randomised controlled study into herbal practice was designed. The study was also funded by the NIMH Education Fund.
The aim was to pilot a methodology to investigate “real-life” herbal practice. We were clear that we did not want to separate the elements within the consultation, and used a waiting-list control rather than a placebo. The menopause was chosen because patients could be recruited through general practice and because it would not raise problems where patients were already on long-term orthodox medication.
The study compared a package of 6 consultations with a NIMH member over 5 months with women on a waiting list. Participants were 45 women with self defined menopausal symptoms. The treatment was usual care by the herbalist. A waiting list control controls for the natural history of a problem. It does not control for placebo effect. What we have asked basically is “is herbal practice better than nothing at treating menopausal symptoms?” Or to put it another way “does this work in practice”?
A paper on the randomised controlled trial was published in 2007 and more details are given in the attached leaflet. The prescriptions were also analysed and a qualitative study was also completed.
It has been a big learning curve particularly in patience and persistence. In bleak moments there have been allies who have put themselves out to support us again and again. In particular, the study relied on the input of the statisticians at the Bristol Research and Development Support Unit. To all those herbalists, academics and clinicians and most of all to the women who took part in the study a big thank you.
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