Photobiomodulation und COVID-19: Auswahl von Studiendesigns für Mögliche Heim-Behandlung — Kritische Betrachtungen

Litscher, Gerhard

The number of high-ranking publications on photobiomodulation is increasing disproportionately worldwide and it is therefore easy to understand that the therapy option should also be methodically expanded and tested in the treatment of COVID-19 as a complementary method for combating pandemics. In order to ascertain the current state of knowledge on the subject, a current research on ongoing clinical research studies and the first available results was initiated. In terms of the chosen method, the research focused on the variant of a possible self-executable home treatment. Three current study designs are to be described and discussed in more detail in this overview report. The three study projects do not all meet the requirements of good scientific practice, but should be briefly presented here because they are up to date. Although the designs can be expected to provide scientifically assessable results, no scientific conclusion can currently (yet) be drawn that the three methods for the treatment of COVID-19 prove to be suitable. The reasons for this are that no results are yet available in two of the three studies and one pilot study has major formal scientific deficiencies that should be avoided in follow-up studies.