Treatment- Teaching- Training on one platform.

The general concept in Homeopathy towards treatment of the sick is Treat the patient not the disease.  On a superficial sense, this may be preposterous, but in a deeper sense it conveys its holistic concepts towards the patient.  A patient with hypertension, diabetes mellitus and COPD may express multitude of symptoms common to each of these diseases. Based on the clinical findings and diagnostic evidences, he is considered as a patient of hypertension, diabetes and COPD. Such a concept necessitates different prescriptions to balance the patho- physiological changes in the patient’s health.  Whether the patient is lean or obese, irritable or gentle does not matter in selection of remedies. Even the patient is not personally present  for consultation,  the medicines can be prescribed  merely based on the diagnostic evidences. Most of these prescriptions shall give relief to the suffering.

Treat the patient not the disease concept of homeopathy explains that the patient suffering from one or many diseases is an individual whose health has got deranged due to multitude of factors. This external factor (meturic and telluric) influence the susceptibility of the individual and deranges the weaker parts of the human economy. This brings changes in the patho- physiological frame of the individual and  thus the wellness person become  the sick. In short, homeopathy believes that the hypertension, diabetes and COPD are the result of the derangement of the human economy (life force). The susceptibility of the individual depends on his genomic states (constitution), lifestyle, living conditions, habits, past history, family history and so on. This explains rationally, why certain people falls sick on similar situations and certain people escape from the diseases inspite of reasonable exposure to  similar situations. This also explains why the expressions of the same disease differ in different people (individuality).

Symptoms are the language of the disease — the body’s attempt to warn about the  internal derangement of the person. Without symptoms, a person could not have illness. The symptom may be trivial or significant.  This may be at physical, mental or at spiritual level. As experienced physician  shall be able to identify  the internal derangement through the signs and symptoms, even if it is trivial or insignificant to the patient.

In homeopathy, medicine is prescribed after a detailed case taking, giving importance both to mental and physical attributes as well as any particular symptoms. Both subjective and objective symptoms have got its importance. The symptoms that represent the patient as a whole are of more value, especially such as are expressed in the patient’s own words.

The core concept of Homeopathy is principle of Similia Similibus Curantur, which demonstrates that a remedy selected for the treatment of a natural disease shall be the one that is capable of producing a range of similar symptoms in a healthy person. Therefore, the precondition to call a substance a homeopathic remedy is its ability to produce set symptoms on  healthy human volunteers during the course of its clinical trial (Human Pathogenic Trial/ drug proving). Basically, this principle demonstrates that disease can be cured by a medicinal substance that is tested on the principles of Homeopathic pharmacodynamics.

In homeopathy, the prescriptions are made by tailoring of remedies to the patient’s personality type, causation of the illness and totality of symptoms.  This method differs from prescriptions in other medical systems, wherein prescriptions are mainly based on the name of the diseases or main causative factors. The physicians of the biomedicine would prescribe  the same  medication  or treatment regimen  to all patients  with the same disease, whereas

a homeopathic  practitioner would ask detailed questions  about each patient’s  symptoms and the  modalities,  or factors, that make them  better  or worse, his likings and dislikes and so on. Here the main focus is to  individualise the person from other patients with similar diseases. In view of this difference, the homeopath might prescribe different remedies for different patients with the same illness. 

Evaluation of Symptoms  

The word symptom connotes any change that the patient experiences during the illness, including changes in emotional patterns, sleep, eating habits, temperature variations and so on.  According to the importance for selecting a similimum, symptoms are evaluated for their value.  The following are the different approaches of evaluation of symptoms:

Peculiar symptoms: These are symptoms unique to the individual that do not occur in most persons with the same disease. Homeopaths make  note of  peculiar  symptoms  because  they oft help to determine the remedy.

Mental and emotional symptoms: These are important general symptoms that inform about the patient’s total experience of the disorder.

Other general symptoms: These are physical symptoms felt throughout the patient’s body such as tiredness, changes in appetite, or restlessness.

Particular symptoms: Particular symptoms are localized in the body; they include such symptoms as nausea, skin rashes, headache, etc

During homeopathic case-taking, the practitioner  will evaluate  the intensity  of the  patient’s symptoms, assess their depth, duration, note any peculiar symptoms, evaluate the modalities of each symptoms and make a list of key  symptoms  to guide the selection of the  proper  medicine.

Selection and administration of a remedy

The choice of a specific remedy is guided by the patient’s total symptom profile rather by  the illness. Homeopathic remedies are prescribed according to the law of similars. There are several types of prescriptions according to the different types of clinical presentation   of the case.