When the Indicated Remedy Fails
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1999 Jul / Aug VOL VIII NO 4.
Compiled by :
T K Kasiviswanathan
'Nat-sulp / Conin / Nat-mur / Sep / Cocc / Calc-carb / Rhus-tox / Hyper / Chloro / Caust
We Homoeopaths often find, that even the remedy selected after careful case taking and evaluation does not produce any effect. Now the question arises: what is to be done in such cases?
If the indicated remedy has failed to act, we have to first consider whether the remedy was really and correctly indicated at all. This means we have to go back and re-examine each step taken to arrive at the remedy. Stalwarts have explored the various feasibilities in this regard and they have given useful guidelines in this regard. We will explore each of these feasibilities in this and future issues.
- Importance of getting correct and Complete data:
Dr P Sankaran says that however carefully we have taken the case and noted the symptoms; we have no positive proof that this is indeed the indicated remedy beyond any doubt. "It also happens that many of our patients are not as observant as we expect them to be." They may miss to give us all the symptoms and modalities. Secondly they may only give common or particular symptoms of their complaint, which are not very relevant for a Homoeopathic prescription. After the first interview they may start observing their symptoms and give the Homoeopath additional information, peculiar sensations etc., which then enables a correct second prescription. - Eliciting the cause of the complaint:
Many successful cures have been effected based on the causative factors relating to the complaint. Dr Sankaran advised that in going over the case again carefully, we have to see if the cause, origin or source of the whole disorder can be discovered and pinpointed. He adds "the etiological factor, gross or subtle, may serve to differentiate one case from another though similar and it may help us to individualize the patient. A patient who develops a stroke after a long period of loss of sleep may need a different remedy from another with the same condition but with a history of suppressed anger. The pathology and the diagnosis or nosological label may be the same, but the etiology may make all the difference and point to an entirely different remedy."
The exciting cause may be external or internal. Dr R P Patel of Kottayam has narrated at least two instances of external causes. In one case a one-year old baby was crying incessantly and had retention of urine. The doctor's assistants gave some remedies without effect. Dr R P Patel made a physical examination of the child and found that the golden chain tied to the abdomen of the child on the occasion of its birthday was tight and pressing. When it was removed the child stopped crying immediately and after some time passed urine. In another case a 3 year-old child was having constant diarrhoea not responding to several remedies tried. On close questioning it was ascertained that the child was still on breast-feed and in order to wean the child, mother was applying some bitter concoctions on her breast; sucking this resulted in diarrhoea. Once this external cause was removed, diarrhoea stopped.
The second category is internal manifestation of external causes. It again can be divided into two categories, as suggested by Dr K N Mathur, viz., immediate causes and remote causes.
Case 1:
Dr P Sankaran once treated a patient suffering from headaches with vertigo. Many remedies selected on the basis of presenting symptoms did not relieve. He therefore inquired into the origin of the trouble. Pt could not recollect any cause, except that his headache had started after he started practicing Shirsasan. Presuming that this might have caused an injury to the head, Dr Sankaran prescribed a few doses of Nat-sulph, which cured the patient of his headaches.
(See the cases of Nat-sulph under the article-Cases from our Rich heritage where it was prescribed on the basis of injury to head as the cause)
Case 2:
A gentleman brought his 2-½ year old child for treatment. A week earlier, while the father was carrying the child in the street, both fell down. When he got up, the child also got up and there was no apparent injury to both of them. But when they returned home and set the child down, she was unable to stand on her feet. She could only stand on her right leg with the left one drawn up. But while lying down she could stretch the left leg. An allopathic doctor and a neurologist could not find anything wrong. But the child could not walk at all, she could only crawl. At this stage Dr Pathak was consulted.
On the history of fall and interpreting that the child felt better by hanging her legs while standing, Dr Pathak prescribed Conium 200 TDS. In three days the child was able to walk well.
(See KR 1063-Pain, lower limbs, hang down, letting limbs, AMEL: bell, CON, Verat)
Case 3:
A gentleman once consulted Dr S R Pathak, for his wife, who, he said was behaving in an insane manner. She would weep and laugh alternatively and without cause. She would clap her hands and sing suddenly and was incapable of looking after herself. On taking the history, it transpired that 3 years back her child had fallen ill and had died on her lap. This caused great shock but she could not and did not weep. Every other treatment was of no avail. Recently she had given birth to another child, which very much resembled and reminded her of the earlier child.
In treating her Dr Pathak took the symptom-that she had suppressed her grief and referring to Dr Kent's repertory under "sad, cannot weep" found only Gel and Nat-mur. Of these, Nat-mur covered the alternate weeping and laughing. He prescribed her Nat-mur 1M 2-3 doses and it cleared up the whole trouble.
Case 4:
Dr Pathak was consulted by a man who was suffering from diarrhoea continuously for over 40 years. He had tried a variety of doctors over the years with no effect. On inquiry the patient said that the disorder had started during his marriage. At that time he had taken some strongly boiled milk and soon he had an urge for stool. Being in the midst of his marriage ceremony, he had to control that urge. But from the next day he developed this diarrhoea which did not respond to any treatment.
Dr Pathak gave emphasis to this origin of the trouble and treated milk as the cause of the trouble. Boger-Boenninghausen gives only two remedies under the rubric "diarrhoea AGG boiled milk", viz, Nux-mosch and Sepia. He selected Sepia and it completely cured the patient.
(As quoted by Dr P Sankaran)
Case 5:
Once a Christian youth consulted Dr P Sankaran for his epilepsy from which he was suffering for several years. On inquiry it was stated that the attacks invariably occurred whenever he went for a dance. Dr Sankaran could not decide whether the attacks were due to dancing itself, or consumption of alcohol or late nights and excitement etc. On further questioning it turned out that he got the attacks almost always if he kept awake. It had nothing to do with dancing itself. Dr Kent gives only Cocculus for convulsions from loss of sleep. A few doses of this remedy completely cured this patient.
Case 6: (Chemicals)
Mr M aged 35 years, was a chronic asthmatic and needed morphine whenever he got these attacks, as no other drug could relieve him. The history revealed that he had his first attack during one summer holiday, when he was studying in the college. He had gone to his village and was watching the construction of a house. He saw the labourers mixing lime, slaking it and so on. The fumes from the lime choked him and caused fits of cough whenever he went near the work-spot. Dr Koppikar, whom he consulted, also noted that whenever he shifted or visited a newly whitewashed house, he used to get the attacks. Dr Koppikar prescribed Calc-carb 1M and in a few months the asthmatic attacks stopped completely.
(Dr S K Koppikar)
Case 7: (Physical Factors)
A sailor consulted Dr P Sankaran in 1954 for pain in his chest and in the left arm. It seems that one-year back while he was proceeding by ship to UK he had lifted some heavy object with his Lt hand and immediately developed pain somewhere in the chest. The movement of the arm was severely restricted because the pain would increase if he raised his arms. He did not get any relief from the medicines prescribed by the ship's doctor; or from eminent physicians in London and USA. On return to India he also consulted several doctors but to no avail. In desperation he opted for Homoeopathy. Based on the exciting cause, Dr Sankaran prescribed Rhus-tox 30, a few doses to be taken at 6-hourly intervals. He took one dose at the clinic itself and left. Ten minutes later he telephoned from the railway station that the pain had already disappeared and was asking whether he was to continue taking the other powders. He remained well ever since.
(Dr P Sankaran)
Case 8:
A middle-aged patient consulted Dr S R Pathak with the following history.
Two months earlier, while in Cochin, he fell down a staircase and rolled down one step at a time on his back and bottom. He developed soreness and stiffness of the back as a result of his injury. For that he took a few doses of Arnica and felt only slightly better. He took infrared therapy and diathermy with no relief and the x-rays also showed nothing abnormal. Other allopathic injections also proved futile. One and half months later he felt a sudden twitching of the Rt shoulder. His physician diagnosed it as neurosis and gave him a tranquilizer. He took one tablet of that medicine at 10 AM and in one hour this twitching became much worse. He therefore came to Dr Pathak, who was already treating his wife and children.
Since the whole disorder originated from an injury to the spine, the doctor gave him Hypericum 1M to be taken three times a day. He took the first dose at 12 noon and the twitching stopped by 1PM. He continued the medicine BDS and in four days he was completely cured.
- S R Pathak
Case 9: (After-Effects Of Allopathic Drugs)
Mr S R P, aged 48 years, a lawyer by profession, consulted Dr P Sankaran on 28th April 1966 for his Rt side weakness with speech difficulty. He gave the history that in July 1965; he had an attack of typhoid for which he was prescribed Chloromycetin. Just when he seemed to have recovered and was to be discharged from the hospital, he developed paralysis. A Homoeopath at Sholapur gave him Causticum 200 daily one dose and it produced no effect even after taking it for 40 days. Dr P Sankaran also prescribed the same medicine in 1M potency, which also did not produce any improvement.
Considering the fact that the whole trouble had started after the typhoid was treated with Chloromycetin, Dr Sankaran put the patient on Chloromycetin 30 three doses a day for three days and later on Causticum 1M. There was an immediate and satisfactory improvement. Within a month he was able to attend to his work as a lawyer and could argue his cases in the court.
Sources:
- When the indicated remedy fails - Dr P Sankaran.
- Clinical Experiences- Dr S R Pathak.
- The Importance of aetiology in Homoeopathy- a symposium.
- The significance of past history in Homoeopathic prescribing- Dr D M Foubister.
- Causation- Dr S P Koppikar- Homoeopathic Heritage Dec '89.
- Principles of Prescribing- A compilation by Dr K N Mathur,Ch 9-11.
