Types of Homeopathic Practice

Various prescribing habits have developed in different countries or at different times. A clear conceptual division has emerged between two main schools of practice, classical and complex. Classical homeopaths generally treat with a single remedy that exactly matches the patient’s inherent constitutional type and symptom picture. There are occasions, however, particularly in the case of acute illness or injury, where the physical symptoms far outweigh the emotional and other symptoms. In cases such as these a more pragmatic approach may be taken, using combinations of remedies in low potencies. Thus, for instance, five or six remedies known to be helpful for influenza might be combined in a single tablet. This is the complex approach, based on the theories of the British homeopath Dr. Richard Hughes, and also known sometimes as combination homeopathy or polypharmacy. In some situations, generally of an acute nature, it may be adopted by classical homeopaths, but in certain countries it is actually the standard method of prescribing. In 1948 it was officially sanctioned by the American Institute of Homeopathy, and in many European countries, such as France and Germany, polypharmacy is more common than classical homeopathy.
Further variations on the homeopathic principle include isopathy, in which a potentized microdilution of the substance causing the disorder is actually used to treat the symptoms: for example, Apis (which is made from the sting of bee) might be given to someone to treat a bee sting. A classical homeopath will generally only expect a 20 to 30 percent success rate using this method, since it does not take into account the unique constitution of each patient. A refinement of this concept is tautopathy, in which the exact substance triggering the symptoms is used to make a remedy for treating those symptoms. In theory this means that the remedy for a bee sting would be prepared from the actual bee that had inflicted the sting. In practice the concept is most commonly used for allergic reactions, such as treating a child with a remedy made from a vaccination to which the child has reacted.

Refer for various sources.