Cases from our Rich Heritage
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1999 May / Jun VOL VIII NO 3.
T K Kasiviswanathan
'Sym-r / Thuja / Vib

Case 1 
A young lady three months pregnant was suffering from a deathly nausea with vomiting and retching so prolonged and violent as to produce hematemesis. The smell or thought of food was repugnant to the extreme. An examination of the patient showed no malposition or any other cause for the trouble. Taking note of the fact that one Dr Burdick investigated the medicinal properties of Symphoricarpus-racemosus, which produced intense nausea and subsequent satisfactory results obtained for curing morning sickness of pregnant women with potencies of this medicine, Dr Anshutz gave one dose of the above medicine in the midst of a violent paroxysm of nausea and vomiting of the patient. In a few minutes she stopped vomiting and said that she felt soothed and quieted all over. In half an hour the nausea began again but a few pills of this remedy checked it promptly and the lady fell asleep. Once during the night she awoke distressed and took another dose of the medicine and could sleep comfortably. For a month she was all right but due to over-exertion one day she became nauseated once more; it was checked promptly by another dose of this remedy. And such episodes did not recur during the remaining period of pregnancy.

Dr Anshutz writes "After this I had the opportunity of prescribing it in a number of cases with such gratifying results that I gave some of the drug to a number of physicians requesting a faithful trial. All reported favourably and some enthusiastically.

The indications are a feeling of qualmishness with indifference to food. In more severe cases there is a deathly nausea; the vomiting is continuous, with violent retching, but it covers every graduation between these extremes; it does not seem to be confined to any particular morning aggravation; a prominent symptom is the disgust at the sight, smell or thought of food. One case, I remember where the patient was comparatively comfortable while lying on the back but would be nauseated by the slightest motion of the arms, particularly raising them."

[DD: Dr Kent writes in his Lectures as under:- Kali-carb is often a remedy for vomiting in pregnancy, but to find when it is the remedy for vomiting in pregnancy , we have to go to the whole constitutional state. Vomiting of pregnancy is not cured, although it may be temporarily relieved by Ipecac, as this is a medicine that corresponds merely to the nausea itself. The condition really depends on the constitutional state and the remedy that is to cure must be a constitutional remedy.Sulphur, Sepia and Kali-carb are among the remedies commonly indicated. Sometimes Arsenic is needed. When a pregnant woman has no constitutional symptoms at all, and upon examining the case you find nothing but overwhelming deathly nausea with continuous vomiting day and night, a single dose of Symphoricarpus-rac will help. That is prescribing on very limited information and should only be done in circumscribed or one-sided cases. It is not a long acting remedy, it is not a constitutional remedy and acts very much like Ipecac. ( page 633)

Dr S P Koppikar writes that " I have been badly let down by Symphoricarpus 30, 200 or 1M and do not use it anymore. Dr TN Gupta (who wrote about it in Homoeopathic Heritage Journal) uses Q 5 drops tds with success. Cocculus with its weakness legs give way and sepia, which has " nausea on smell of and thought of food ", I have found extremely useful and frequently needed remedy".

Dr Kent gives two marks to this remedy in his rubric Nausea - during pregnancy (p 509). It does not figure in the other three rubrics-Nausea- food, Looking at; Nausea- food, smell of and Nausea-food, thought of.

However Dr Boericke and Dr S R Pathak highly recommend it for persistent vomiting of pregnancy. Dr Boericke says that 200 potency has proved curative.

Dr A H Grimmer says, "There is one troublesome thing, though that sometimes is very hard to master even with a Homoeopathic remedy- the persistent nausea that some of them will have in spite of good prescribing. If you get a case where everything seems to center in the nausea alone of a more or less nervous type, you would be surprised what Symphoricorpus will do for these cases." Thus the opinion on the use of this remedy is divided and only further clinical experience will confirm the usefulness of this remedy in this condition. See also the case in this issue where Medh has been successfully used for pernicious vomiting of pregnancy.)

Source:

1. New, old and forgotten Remedies- Dr E P Anshutz
2. Kent's Lectures on Materia Medica
3. Clinical Tips: Dr Sundaravaradan

Case 2: Abortion
A lady, aged 23, was brought to Dr B Sahni on 6-12-68 for treatment of habitual abortions in the third month of pregnancy. At the time of consultation she was 2 months pregnant and was apprehensive that she might abort this time also. The earlier abortions could not be checked despite best treatment. Her husband's blood test, both Wesserman and VDRL showed positive. There were not many symptoms and still the case was repertorised as under:-

Abortion in third month- Apis, Cimicifuga ,croc, Eup-p, Merc, Sabina, Sec, Thuja, Ust
Worse carriage: Croc, Thu
Aversion to open air- Thuja
Dr Sahni transmitted Thuja 1M on the same day through the hair of the patient and her palms became sweaty (which is considered by Dr Sahni as a favourable sign of the medicine acting). Such a transmission was kept on till 25-4-69 and detached on 26-4-89 due to cough and cold. She gave birth to a healthy female child on 4-7-69.
(Dr B Sahni-Transmission of Homoeo drug energy from a distance p108)

Case 3
Mrs C, aged 36, in the 26th week of her pregnancy suffered from crampy pains starting from her lumbosacral region and extending through her nates to her womb and ending in her legs. The spasmodic pains were tormenting her so much that she was confined to bed for days. The womb neck turned out to be flat and 2cm dilated on examination. She was advised strongly not to leave home because of the risk of premature delivery. Ten years earlier, her first pregnancy was also premature.

At the time of first consultation the patient said that she had been suffering from sharp pains before menses since her first menstruation; the pains used to come and disappear suddenly. A strong sensation of pulling and tearing of the womb was always present before and during menses and the pulling pains extended to the legs, particularly to the anterior part of the thighs. The menstrual flow has been characterized by big clots, which relieved the pain each time they were ejected. During her menses she would be restless which persisted even after menses period was over. Fresh air gave her a sense of relief.

The doctor gave her Viburnum-opulus 30, ten drops twice a day and in 24 hours the pains gradually disappeared. Her gynecologist monitored her womb neck and the patient delivered 3.1kg girl in her 39th week normally.

Sometime later the patient complained that she was once more having crampy pains during the period of lactation and the pains were identical to those earlier she experienced. On the basis of past history, she was prescribed Viburnum-op 200. Thereafter, her pains ceased and her first menses after the childbirth was painless. ( Dr R Pomposelli- European Journal of Classsical Homoeopathy July-Sept 1996)

(See Dr Boericke's Pocket Manual- It is a general remedy for cramps; often prevents miscarriages; spasmodic and congestive affections, dependent upon ovarian or uterine origin. Menses too late, scanty, lasting a few hours, offensive odour, with crampy pains; cramps extend through thighs. Frequent and early miscarriage; pains from back to loins and womb worse early morning.)