Leucoderma - A Challenge
NATIONAL JOURNAL HOMOEOPATHY 1993 Mar / Apr VOL II No 2.
Dr Kasim Chimthanawala.
` Nux-v / Nit-ac / Med / Calc / Ars-s-f / Teuc / Morb.

Leucoderma belongs to the group of one sided diseases, as described by Master Hahnemann. Dr Sarkar in his commentary on the Organon, has classified it under the head of Chronic / Constitutional / Natural / Non-surgical disease with localised manifestations on the external parts of the body.

Such diseases are difficult to cure or may be incurable, because of paucity of characteristic symptoms on which constitutional drugs can be prescribed.

Case 1:
A young girl, 13 years old, complained of multiple white patches all over the body, more on the legs, lips and chest. They were more or less circular in shape, symmetrically situated and had started after an injury on the right knee joint, 6 year ago, which had healed with scar formation. It was increasing slowly, but after her fathers death in an accident, it started increasing rapidly.

She also suffered from recurrent tonsillitis and occasional bedwetting. (She used to wet bed daily upto 10 years of age).
Temperamentally, she was very obstinate and headstrong. She liked to travel by bus or train. She liked fried foods.
As a child she craved slate pencils. Even now, if given a chance, she would take a bite or two!
Urine- has a peculiar smell (which she could not describe).
P/H: At the age of 2 years, she had measles and had passed a round worm in stool.
F/H: Father had venereal warts which were cauterised. Paternal grandmother died of CA breast. Mother suffered from leucorrhoea.

One dose of Nux-vom 2C at bedtime followed by a dose of Sulphur 1M the following morning was given. Ars-sulf-flav 6X, 4 tablets TDS was followed.
No change was observed. Sulphur 1M was repeated after a month without any change.
So, I once again in interrogate the patient with an attempt to collect more symptoms for a constitutional prescription. The following symptoms were confirmed:

• Obstinate and headstrong.
• Tendency to catch cold easily.
• Likes to travel.
• Desires undigestible things.
• Nocturnal enuresis.
• Skin-discolouration white.

One dose of Medorrhinum 1M was given as an intercurrent (on the basis of venereal warts in father, cancer in paternal grand mother, habit of eating undigestible things and bedwetting). This drug actually did the job. The recolouration spread fast and within one year or so most of the patches disappeared except those of the lips and near the ears.
This was my first cured case which, I successfully managed with Nitric acid and Medorrhinum.

Case 2:
A boy of 2 years age, came with complaints of recurrent colds and constipation. On the basis of the symptoms a dose of Calc-carb 2C was administered. The child started improving and the attacks became less frequent. The intensity also reduced substantially.

Astonishingly, by 3 months, a small white patch appeared on the chest which increased rapidly. This perturbed the entire family, mainly the mother. She asked, when Homoeopathy has no side effects, then how did this patch appear? For me too, this was a million dollar question.

I was worried, as it was the first case in whom I saw such an effect. Gathering all my courage and with a confidence in my prescription I reinterrogated the patient. An hour of questioning and cross-examining finally revealed that the mother also had this disease.

The information immediately settled the turbulent state of my mind, but the problem still loomed large; how to convince the family, because, this was the mothers secret and I could not reveal it to her inlaws.

To overcome this hurdle, I sent the child to a Dermatologist. I asked him to confirm the diagnosis of Leucoderma and explain to the father, that the prognosis of the disease is not as bad as is believed, and to convince him that the patch is not a side effect of Homoeopathic medicine.

Fortunately the Dermatologist did his job well and when everything settled down I gave the patient a dose of Sulphur 1M, followed by SL. As expected the patch disappeared in 15 days and it is now more than 6 months since with no relapse.
The case taught me that the correct Homoeopathic medicine can bring out an inherited disease!

Editor: I seriously request readers experience on this as it is a new idea for me- that homoeopathy can bring out an inherited disease.

Case 3:
A young girl of 6 years, one of my colleagues daughter, was referred by a Dermatologist to me, for multiple white patches on both the lower limbs and a few on the forearm. She also had threadworm infestations and hence complained of abdominal pain every now and then with nocturnal enuresis, practically every night.

When she was 18 months, she was vaccinated, following this, she had a severe attack of measles; later the discolouration started.

Temperamentally she was mild, sober, with average intelligence. Father had hypertension and piles. Maternal aunt had leucoderma. Mother had no complaints.

With no peculiar characteristic symptom worth constituting the essential totality, one dose of Sulphur 1M was given empirically along with Ars-sulf-flav 6X, 4 tabs TDS for one month. There was no appreciable change. Hence on the basis o threadworms Teucrium-mar-va 30, 2 doses daily was given and Ars-sulf-flav continued. Improvement started 3 weeks after but then stopped in 2 months. Teucrium was repeated again. No further change noticed. This time Morbillinum 1M one dose and Teucrium 1M was repeated. All the patches vanished in 8 months and since 3 years there is no relapse.

Inference: On the basis of the above stated cases and my experience in managing such groups of cases, I have made certain observations which call for due consideration.

1. In 50 percent of cases, conditions like Amoebiasis, threadworm infestations, hypothyroidism, H/o physical or mental injury are associated with Leucoderma patients.
2. Every patient of Leucoderma requires to be managed, rather than be simply treated with medicines. All attempts must be made to allay the psychological component of guilt, anxiety and worry.
3. 30 percent of cases have a familial tendency. One out of four children of Leucoderma parents may inherit the disease.
4. The disease is not contagious, infectious or harmful.
5. The cause of the disease lies within the constitution and not in the skin. It is a constitutional disorder with dermal manifestations and not a local diseases of skin due to some hypothetical external cause.
6. The prognosis is good and more than 50 percent of the cases can be cured by deep acting constitutional Homoeopathic drugs.
7. Prognosis is even more favourable in:
   1. Recent cases of 1-2 years of duration, with small discrete patches on the external area.
   2. When the disease is active, ie when new patches are erupting or when old ones are growing.
   3. When the disease is associated with other symptoms pointing clearly to constitutional remedy.
8. Prognosis guarded in-
   1. Full blown cases of long duration with patches all over the body.
   2. Discolouration at mucocutaneous junctions like lips, vulva, glans penis and around ears, eyes, nose.
   3. When hair, mucous membrane of palate, cheek, vagina etc are also involved.
   4. Resistant cases not yielding to a number of courses of symptomatic treatment particularly PUVA therapy, steroids, hormones, local psoralen ointments etc.
   5. A dead or silent patch, ie one or two patches of many years durations without any change (neither increasing nor decreasing), A secondary patch ie the discolorations produced by a burn, lichenified or an injury (healed) scar.