Classical Homeopathy Association, Izmir, www.homeopati.org.tr

UHODER, Ankara, www.uhoder.org

Homeopathic Medicinal Association, Istanbul

Situation of Homeopathy in Turkey

On 27 October 2014 the Ministry of Health released the Traditional and Complementary Medicine Regulation.Homeopathy is regulated along with 15 other complementary treatments. These include chiropractic, osteopathy, acupuncture, phytotherapy, hypnosis, prolotherapy and mezotherapy.

Regarding the regulation and Turkish legislation, only medical doctors and dentists who have additional qualification in homeopathy can treat patients. Homeopathy is limited to use in clinics and hospitals by medical doctors in order to treat certain conditions which are defined in the regulation. Some of these specific conditions include headache, upper respiratory tract infections, sleep disorders, allergy,arthritis, weak immune system, amongst others.

The education of homeopathy can only be provided in universities which also have a treatment clinic for traditional and complementary medicine. Further details around education remain unclear. At the end of December there will be another official meeting in the health ministry with some authorities from the universities and NGO’s where a decision about the teaching hours and course duration will be made. Based on previous meetings it is likely that courses will consist of approximately 500 hours with a duration of around 2 years.

One of the main problems we battle is the inconveniences of not having the freedom of accessibility of the homeopathic remedies. And the other main problem we face is the exponentially increasing numbers of medical doctors claiming to practice homeopathy without the proper training in homeopathy and increased number of lay persons treating patients as homeopath.

There are two medical homeopathy associations and two homeopathic associations mainly for lay persons and they are giving courses open for everybody.

The veterinarian practice of homeopathy is very well defined and regulated.