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How a Fictional Doctor Changed My Real-World Research Plans

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 AUTISM, HOMEOPATHY & A WEB-SERIES THAT MADE ME THINK  


How a Fictional Doctor Changed My Real-World Research Plans  

I have never examined an autistic child in my college OPD.  
Truth be told, my institute hardly gets any paediatric cases, let alone special-needs children.  

So my only “clinical exposure” to Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) came through binge-watching the medical web-series “Miracle”  (yes, the one with Dr. Ali Wefa).  

The show-runners did something rare: they cast an ASD boy as a main character, not a sympathy prop.  I found myself pausing episodes, scribbling notes on his sensory meltdowns, his echolalia, his photographic memory of drug doses.  

This made me to search through  PubMed, then to Cochrane, and finally to the question: 

“Where does homoeopathy stand in this spectrum?”

Here is the article that grew out of those midnight screens  with lots of curiosity.

“They don’t lack emotion; they express it differently.”

Autism Early signs 



 From Netflix to Numbers – What PubMed Says  

- Global prevalence: 1 in 36 (CDC 2024)  
- India:  1 in 68  (ICMR 2021)  
- Average age of diagnosis in rural India: 6.2 years (ideal window = < 3 yrs)  
- Only 14 % receive any form of developmental therapy in the first year post-diagnosis.  

So, while the series shows a high-functioning, well-supported child, reality for most families is delayed diagnosis, long travel to centres, and huge out-of-pocket expense.  

I researched through (PubMed + DHARA + AYUSH PORTAL) with terms:  
(“autism” OR “ASD”) AND (“homoeopathy” OR “homeopathy”).


No evidence strong enough to say YES, no data big enough to say NO



What I Will Tell Parents (Until Real Data Arrive)  

 “Homoeopathy is still experimental for autism.  If you wish to try it:  

- Keep doing proven therapies  
- Document everything (videos, scales, sleep log)  
 - Work with a qualified homeopath, not a WhatsApp forward  
- Consider joining a registered study – you help science & get free, monitored care


From Viewer to Researcher


- Autism is different , not less.  
- Good research beats good intention – every time.  
- If a Netflix show can make a student design an RCT, imagine what real exposure could do!  
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