General practitioners in the Netherlands are prescribing far fewer homeopathic remedies than 20 years ago.

According to the journal Medisch Contact, last year nearly 17 percent of patients received a homeopathic remedy, against 40 percent in 1989. The journal says there is growing scepticism among GPs regarding homeopathy and many of them prefer to prescribe medicine with scientifically proven results. Most doctors, the journal says, only prescribe homeopathic remedies at the explicit request of the patient.