A case of Optic Neuritits
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1998 Mar / Apr VOL VII NO 2.
Dr Vandana Srinivasan
'Stram

The following case is highly educative showing how, by understanding a case in its depth, the simillimum can be arrived at and curative results obtained even in difficult cases. In this case, the dreams were interpreted as "delusions" to understand the state of disposition. 

Mrs. K A aged 30, was diagnosed as a case of Optic Neuritis of the left eye with dimness of vision. She could see only projected light in all the four quadrants. The dimness was noticed on 24/2/95 and the patient consulted an Ophthalmic Surgeon who treated her with intra-ocular and intra-muscular injections which included steroids, antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs and steroid-based eye drops. Her right eye vision was 6/6. When she came to me for treatment on 4/3/95, she had pain in both the eyes since 5 days. 

The Case : She has craving for sweets, sour and non-veg food. Sweat on the palms and soles. Has good sleep though she has many dreams. She fears darkness and being alone; talks to herself when alone. Her nature is friendly, happy go lucky, she likes being at home, but also likes to go out with her husband. 

Dreams : She has a variety of dreams; that someone is holding a buffalo's head on the same staircase as the one she uses; she is scared of this as there is no no way for her to go up or down. And at this pint she wakes up scared. At other times she dreams of black snakes chasing her, biting her; that she has murdered someone; or that she is drowning and a snake is coming to bite her. Sometimes she also dreams that her feet are cut off and she cannot walk. That she is naked and people are watching her. I draw the conclusion that in all these dreams there is a strong feeling of fear and fright. 

Analysis : The patient had come to me on 12/7/93 for the first time with complaints of piles, loose stools and stomatitis. And on the basis of the symptoms she had then presented, she was given Stram 1M going up to 10M to which she responded very well. She did not see me after Nov 1994 till she developed the present problem. 

She came for consultation as her ophthalmic surgeon had opined that her chances of going into Optic Atrophy were high, with the chance of getting a similar problem in the other eye too. As I happened to know the surgeon personally, I spoke to him on the phone and he confirmed the opinion he had expressed. Now, inspite of the grave pathology, a relatively high potency of the simillimum was considered advisable. There was no time to lose, as the remedy had to be given before she went into Optic Atrophy. More than ten days had passed after the Surgeon's opinion and the patient herself was in panic as she realized the seriousness of the problem, especially as all the intensive allopathic treatment given by the surgeon had proved futile. 

Her mental symptoms being quite intense, it was decided to treat her purely on those symptoms. 
The rubrics selected were:

Stramonium, which emerged from this analysis was, surprisingly the same remedy which had helped her [for different complaints] in 1993 as stated earlier. Based on her strong under current of fear, as reflected in her dreams, she was given Stramonium 10M single dose. Following this, her vision [left eye] gradually improved. On 10/3/95 her vision was 6/36; on 15/3/95 it was 6/9 and on 21/3/95 was 6/5 

On 21/6/95 the patient reported another dream viz, of falling in a ditch from a height, which really scared her out of sleep. This time she was given a dose of Stram 50M on 22/6/95. 15 days later she reported that her vision had become quite normal.