Destructive Polypharmacy Takes its Toll (1998)
Now, I would like to narrate a complex drug disease that was very difficult to cure. In January 1998, a 47-year-old lady came to me with chronic diarrhoea of five years duration. Her diarrhoea started after taking antibiotics following an incision and drainage on the thumb for whitlow. She was passing loose stools 3-4 times a day. She had this tendency only during daytime and never at night. Every day, she passed stool immediately after rising from bed. Throughout the day, she had uneasiness in her abdomen. After passing stool for three to four times, she got some relief around evening. The stool was profuse, yellowish and very noisy and spurting type. There was much flatulence. After initial allopathic treatment, she took homoeopathic treatment for a long time from a qualified allopathic doctor practising polypharmacy. Large doses of potentised medicines, in high potency, were given indiscriminately for more than a year. Her appetite was good. Since there was no discom fort at night, she slept well.
Investigations
Stool-Routine examination revealed the following:
- Ova- Ancylostoma
- Amoeba, cyst, parasites-nil
- Cellular exudates - pus cells+
- Crystals, mucus - nil
Previous treatment history
23.12.1996 : Merc sol 1M, 2 drops in 2 teaspoons of water, 4 times a day. Hepar sulph 1M, 2 drops in 2 teaspoons of water, 4 times a day after food.
04.02.1997 : Sulphur 1M, 2 drops in 2 teaspoons of water, once every Sunday. Podophyllum 6, 2drops in 2 teaspoons of water, morning and night.
17.06.1997 : MEBEX/ 1-0-1, 3 days Nux vomica 30, 2 drops in 2 teaspoons of water, 4 times a day.
18.07.1997 : China 6, 3drops in 2 teaspoons of water, 4 times a day.
31.07.1997 : Calcaria phos 1M, 2 drops in 2 teaspoons of water, twice on Sundays. Nux vomica 30, 2 drops in 2 teaspoons of water, 4 times a day. COLICIVE/10 tablets
28.10.1997 : Calc phos 1M, 2 drops in 2 teaspoons of water, twice a day. Nux vomica 30, 2 drops in 2 teaspoons of water, 4 times a day.
07.01.1998 : CPROSTAR OR CIPROWIN 250 gm 1-0-1
Treatment
To start with, I asked her to drink coffee for some days to antidote the excessive doses of homoeopathic medicines she had taken. After that I started treatment, reluctantly, with Opium 200 as a homoeopathic antidote on 16-01-1998. She was under my
treatment for almost four years. I gave Opium until 10M potency that gave her moderate relief. She was also given Petroleum from 200 to 10M potencies according to symptom similarity during this period. In between, when she developed acute attacks of diarrhoea, she was given Nux vom 30, Ars 30, Carbo veg 30 and Merc sol 30 whenever the symptoms called for each of them. She was much better by 2002 and I advised her to stop treatment. There was no permanent restoration of health, which I never expected in such a mismanaged case.
Discussion
Dr. Hahnemann says, “A homoeopathic antidote for such a misfortune produced by large doses of homoeopathic remedies is hardly conceivable.” I understood soon after case taking that the above case was such a misfortune which was most difficult to cure. I didn't want to take up this case for I knew, as a physician, that I will not be able to fulfill my 'high and only mission' - i.e. 'restoring the sick to health.' I explained to the patient the extent of damage that the multiple medicines in large doses had done to her health. There was no comparison between the minuteness of the therapeutic dosage in Homoeopathy and the enormous quantities of medicines she had actually consumed. She was helpless and pleaded for help.
Initially, coffee and later Opium were able to antidote some of her troublesome drug induced symptoms. Treatment stretching over 4 years gave her some relief and her health improved moderately.
Polypharmacy is a menace and a curse to the system. Hahnemann calls this a criminal treason against divine Homoeopathy. Homoeopathic over drugging is more damaging and difficult to manage than allopathic ones. Powerful potentized homoeopathic medicines that act on the dynamic plane, when given in large doses, derange the vital force so strongly that the person lacks the vitality to respond to the curative treatment. A case treated along these lines can sometimes put the patient's life in danger, but does make his/her disease almost incurable.
Since medicines are given in large doses, drug proving happens. It will be difficult to differentiate between the original morbid symptoms and the medicinal symptoms. In such a case, how can a true homoeopath conceive the totality of symptoms and arrive at the curative similimum? The internal environment of the patient is totally vitiated and therefore the reaction of the vital force to the partially similar medicine selected will not be ideal. As a result, the case remains incurable.
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