Depression & its Homoeopathic Approach

Modern Homoeopathy

Monthly Newsletter November 2007

Dr. Pawan S. Chandak

Parbhani, India

Repertorial approach:

Synthesis Repertory 8.1 Version:

Mind-Sadness : Ars, Ars-i, Aur, Calc, Calc-ars, Calc-i, Calc-s, Carb-an, Carbn-s, Caust, Cham, Chin, Cimic, Crtot-t, Ferr,Gels,Graph, Hell, Ign, Iod, Kali-br, Kali-p, Lac-c, Lach, Lept, Lil-t, Lyc, Merc, Mez, Murx, Nat-m, Nat-s, Nit-ac, Op, Plat, Psor, Puls, Rhus-t, Sep, Stann, Stry, Sulph, Thuj, Zinc

morning,evening, afternoon, night

alternating with

affection, anger, antics playing, buoyancy, cheerfulness, contentment, delirium, diarrhea, eccentricity, ecstasy, elatedness, euphoria, exhilaration, exuberance, fear, hilarity, hope, Indifference, Insanity, irritability, laughing, loquacity, lungs inflammation of the, mania, mirth, playfulness, pleuropneomonia, quarreling, restlessness, sexual desire, tenderness, timidity, tranquility, vehemence, violence, vivacity,

- anger after, from.

- annoyance

- anxious

bad news after

brooding with

business when thinking of

cancer with

causeless

cheerfulness after

children in

chill before, during, after

coition after

colors - purple, white, aggn aversion

company - aggn, amel, aversion, desire

consolation aggn

continence from

criminal as if being the greatest

darkness in

deliver after

dementia with

disappointment from

disease about

drunkards in

dwelling constantly on her condition

eating - after, before,

epilepsy before the attack of

eruptions suppressed with

excitement after

exhilaration after

flowers from smell of

fortune from reverse of

friends as if having lost affection of

future about the

girls in

gloomy

grief after

happy on seeing others

harsh word, from a

headache during

heat after, during

hemorrhoids suppressed after

house in

idleness while

impotence with

injuries from

insult as from

irritability with

itching from

jealousy with sadness

loquacity after

loss - financial loss, place after loss of

love from disappointment

masturbation

menopause during

menses after, before, during

suppressed menses

mercury after abuse of

milk after disappearance of

misfortune as from

money losing after

mortification after

music from

noise from

obesity with

old age in

pain from

past events about

periodical

perspiration

pregnancy in

puberty in

quarrel with husband after

quiet in

religious

seaside at

sexual desire after

sighing with

sit in corner and does not want to have anything to do with the world

suicidal disposition with

summer

sunshine in

superfluous feeling

taciturn

thinking position on his,

trifles about

unoccupied when

urination

Bach Flower Repertory:

Mind; GRIEF (1) : Star-b-b.
Mind; SADNESS (mental depression)(See Grief)(Morose) (15) : beech-b., clem-b., crb-a-b., elm-b., gors-b., honey-b., lar-b., must-b., oak-b., pine-b., rck-w-b., Star-b-b., sw-ch-b., will-b., wld-r-b.
Mind; SADNESS; consolation agg (1) : chic-b.
Mind; SADNESS; continence, from (1) : rck-w-b.
Mind; SADNESS; injuries of the head, from (2) : must-b., star-b-b.
Mind; SADNESS; masturbation, from (2) : crb-a-b., lar-b.
Mind; SADNESS; sexual excitement, suppressed (2) : cher-p-b., rck-w-b.
Mind; SADNESS; slight, an undeserved, from (1) : will-b.
Mind; SADNESS; weep, cannot (1) : star-b-b.

Homoeopathic Approach:

When taking history of depressed patient we should concentrate on cause behind depression like any bad news, incident in life, loss of business, loss of position, failure in exam or business, anxiety of future, long continued illness, from any insults, injury or accident, suppressed menses, from music, pregnancy, from sad stories etc.

Then we should find out the type of depression whether it is during pregnancy or after delivery, postpartum depression, sexual depression etc.

Then depression or sad mood timing should be traced whether it is in morning, afternoon, evening or night as time modalities is important in Homoeopathy.

Also it should be seen whether it is < when in Company or alone, or in particular place.

In Homoeopathy treatment is not based on specific signs & symptoms as described in depression but we should concentrate on totality which includes causes, signs & symptoms, concomitants, modalities, physical & mental make up of patient.

Treatment varies according to individual. Also miasm of the person before suffering & during suffering should be find out.

Homoeopathic Materia Medica:

Aurum Mettalicum: It belongs to syphilitic miasm. It is useful for mental state of general depression. Aurum mett patient is hopeless, despondent and having great desire to commit suicide. It is remedy for suicidal depression. In Aurum Mett every opportunity is sought for self destruction. It is indicated remedy for Depression in cardiac & High blood pressure patient.

Aurum mett is indicated for pinning boys, low-spirited, lifeless, weak memory. There is feeling of self-condemnation and utter worth fullness. There is profound despondency with increased blood pressure with through disgust of life and thoughts of suicide. Patient is oversensitive to noise, excitement, confusion.

< from sunset to sunrise.

Aconite: Useful for fear, anxiety, anguish of mind and body. Aconite Patient feels sad from music. Music is unbearable. Delirium of Aconite is characterized by unhappiness, worry, fear, raving, unconsciousness. > open air

< in warm room, in evening, night, from music

Ambra Grisea: Suitable for excitable, morose children and thin, nervous patient. Also for patients weakened by age, or overwork who are anemic and sleepless. Music aggravates Ambra Grisea. Patient is having desire to be alone, dread of people, cannot do anything in presence of others. Music causes weeping. Indicated for despondent, loathing of life. Time passed slowly for Ambra. Ambra dwells upon unpleasant thoughts.

< music, presence of strangers, from unusual things.

Calcarea Carb: Calcarea Carb is having apprehension < towards evening. Fear of loss of reason. Fear of misfortune. Calcarea is forgetful, confused, low-spirited. Calcarea is having anxiety with palpitation. Calcarea is having aversion to work or exertion.

< physical & mental exertion, during full moon.

Calcarea Arsenicum: It is useful for complaints of fat women or women around climacteric age. Slightest emotion causes palpitation in women. Calcarea Ars desire for company.

< from slightest exertion.

Capsicum: Capsicum is suited for persons of lax fiber, weak, diminished vital heat. Capsicum persons are fat, indolent, opposed to physical exertion, averse to go outside than daily routine, get homesick easily. Useful for depression of Alcoholics. Useful for depression of old people who have exhausted by mental work & poor living, who do not reach easily. Useful for homesickness with sleeplessness. Capsicum patient is having disposition to commit suicide.

Carbo Animalis: Capsicum is suited to scrophulous and venous constituition, old people and after debilitating diseases with feeble circulation and lowered vitality. Carbo Animalis wants to be alone. He is sad and restless at night with orgasm of blood.

< loss of animal fluids.

Causticum: Causticum child does not want to go to bed alone. For Causticum patient least things make him cry. Ailments from long lasting grief, sudden emotions, causticum complaints are worse by thinking of it. Causticum is sad, hopeless. Causticum in intensely sympathetic as his worry progress he emaciates.

Chamomilla: Mental calmness contraindicates Chamomilla. A disposition that is mild, calm and gentle, sluggish and constipated bowel contraindicates Chamomilla.

Cinchona: Indicated for Debility from exhausting discharges, from loss of vital fluids, together with nervous erythism. China Patient is apathetic, indifferent, disobedient, taciturn and despondent, Cinchona cries suddenly & toose about. < loss of vital fluids.

Coca: Coca is useful medicine for Depressed patient who areBashful, timid, ill at ease in society. There is want of will power. There is shakiness and depression. Fear of falling when walking. 'Sensation as of small foreign bodies or of worms under the skin".

Ferrum Mettalicum: Ferrum is adapted to young weakly person, anaemic and chlorotic with false plethora who flush easily, cold extremities, oversensitive to any effort. Slightest noise is unbearable. It is suited for Sanguine temperament.

Gelsemium: Gelsemium is suited for Ailments from heat of sun. He wants to be alone. There is dullness, listless. Gelsemium is having apathy regarding his illness. Gelsemium ailments from exciting news.

Helleborus: Helleborus is indicated for Condition of sensorial depression. Helleborus is slow in answering. He is thoughtless, staring. < evening, morning, from uncovering.

Ignatia: It is an most important medicine for Depression. Ignatia is especially adapted to the nervous temperament, women of sensitive, easily excited nature. Patient is of mild disposition, quick to perceive, rapid in execution. Patient is Melancholic, sad, tearful. She is of changeable mood; introspective; silently brooding. She is non communicative nature. Useful for Depression after shocks, grief, disappointment.

< in the morning, open air, after meals, coffee, smoking, liquids, external warmth.

> by while eating, change of position.

Kali Phos: One of the greatest nerve remedies. It is useful for Depressed patients who are weak and tired especially young persons. It is useful for physical & mental depression arising from want of nerve power. It is caused by overexcitement, overwork and worry. It is useful for persons suffering from Anxiety. Patient is having indisposition to meet people. There is extreme lassitude and depression. Patient is very nervous, starts easily, irritable. Also indicated for loss of memory.
< excitement, worry, mental and physical exertion; eating, cold, early morning.

> warmth, rest, nourishment.

Kali Brom: It is indicated for Religious depression. There is feeling of moral deficiency. Patient is having delusion of committed crime, As if he is selected for Divine vengeance, being pursued, conspiracies against him. Patient imagines that he can't pass a certain point. He has Fear of being alone, esp. at night. There is involuntary weeping and sighing. Dullness, difficulty of thinking and comprehending.

> when occupied mentally or physically

Lac can: It is useful for manic depression. There is physical insecurity in which they are ugly. Delusion as if she is dirty. Patient don't want to be touch or even aversion to touch one-self. Changeable mood. Hysterical Tendency. Fear of snakes. Patient THINKS HIMSELF OF LITTLE CONSEQUENCE. Lack of confidence.

Lycopodium: - It is indicated for depression. There is LACK OF SELF-CONFIDENCE. Feels weak and inadequate.
Fear of responsibility. Patient presents themselves different than they feel inside. Tries to hide feelings of incapability.
Timid and passive towards superior. Indicated for superficial relationships. Fear of marriage. Runs away from family.
Suited for intellectual people like schoolteachers, lawyers.

Nat Mur: It is indicated medicine for Depression in which there is hopeless feeling about the future. There is dejection of spirits, consolation aggravates, fluttering of the heart follows. Depression with tendency to dwells upon disagreeable and depressing subjects. Past injuries are called to mind and dwelt upon. Readiness to shed tears. It is useful for melancholia at puberty. Memory weak. All intellectual labor fatigues.

Nat Sulph: Indicated for Depression with suicidal thoughts (hanging or shooting). Suited for sensitive person but closed.
He is estranged from his family. He is sensitive to music; weeps from music. Mental/emotional changes after injuries to the head or spine.

Picric acid: There is great indifference, lack of will power. Brain fag, mental prostration after least intellectual work. Patient is disinclided for mental and physical work. Patient is having burning along spine from least study. Picric acid is useful in neurasthenia, pernicious anaemia. Burnett says about Picric acid "Sensation of coldness, male genitalia".

Platina: Indicated for Depression. He is having feelings of being better, smarter, more spiritual,... than others. Selfishness.
Delusion of superiority. Irritability and anger leading to impulses when frustrated. Patient is having impulse to kill, esp. when seeing knife. Patient weeps from anger. Depression of Platina which can look like Aurum. Platina Depression is from from loss of place.

Psorinum: It is remedy for Great depression and moroseness. Indicated for ANXIETY and DESPAIR ABOUT THE FUTURE. Patient THINKS HIMSELF 'A LOSER'. He is having forsaken feeling. Anxiety about health. DESPAIR OF RECOVERY. Sadness from itching. He is discouraged. FEAR OF POVERTY AND BANKRUPT. ANGUISHED STATES < NIGHT, WITH RESTLESSNESS. Patient is having Suicidal thoughts. Children are playful alternating with melancholy.

Pulsatillla: Indicated for Depression. She is having FORSAKEN FEELING, often expressed in the need for attention.
CONSOLATION ameliorates her complaints. She is EMOTIONAL, SYMPATHETIC, WEEPS EASILY. She is often mild, but can be irritable. Suited for Changeable moods. She is having Fears of opposite sex dark, heights, narrow places. She is having Fixed ideas, dogma's, can be of a religious kind. She is of Religious kind, Praying.

< Evening, suppressed menses, menopause, pregnancy, warm room.

> open air.

Sepia: Indicated for Depression worse during menses. Suited for Close-up, become introverted, person having averse to company, > WHILE ALONE. They see other peoples weakness because of detachment and hurt their feelings. There is Lacking of emotions. INDIFFERENCE TO LOVED ONES. There is Constant weeping, because of guilt and awareness of emotional changes. Weeping when telling symptoms. Fear of storms, ghosts, poverty. She cannot be stimulated to have joy or emotion.

> EVENING, EXERTION, VIGOROUS activity. Occupation.
< Before and during menses, HORMONAL CHANGES, like menses, abortion, pregnancy, menopause, Coition, Sea.

Stannum Mettalicum: Indicated for Depression. There is Anxiety about future. There is No hope, feels so weak, they know they will die soon. Difficulty in concentration because of mental weakness: thoughts go from one subject to another. Begin one task and get off into another without finishing any. Depression, Anxiety, sadness before menses, > flow.

< least exertion.

Thuja: Indicated for Depressed patients of low self-esteem. There is FEELINGS OF WORTHLESSNESS. He FEELS THAT NOBODY WOULD LOVE THEM IF THEY REALLY KNEW THEM. He feels unattractive, have problems finding their identity.
He imitates the behavior of popular, successful people around them. He feels separated from people. Distant in relationships. He Feel lonely and empty. He is suspicious as to what people think of them. Patient is sensitive to music, to church music. He weeps from music.

Tuberculinum: It is important remedy for Depression. Hopelessness in many complaints. Anxiety < evening, till midnight. Anxiety and loquacity during fever. Thoughts, tormenting, persistent, intrude and crowd upon each other during night. Persons gradually running down, never finding the right remedy. Constant desire to change, travel, to go somewhere, do something different, to find a new doctor. Dr. M.L. Tylor mention : The cosmopolitan desire to travel belongs strongly to one who needs Tuberculinum". Person on borderline of insanity. Intellectual and lung symptoms interchangeable. Desire for air. Suffocates in warm room (Puls). Especially helpful for Depressed persons with T.B. History.

Veratrum Album: Indicated for Depression. He is never happy with SOCIAL POSITION. He is having RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS. ERRORS OF IDENTITY. Thinks he is Christ or appointed by God. Thinks he is a chosen person, send to save the world. He is having Anxiety about salvation. Patient is Gloomy before menses.

Zincum Mettalicum: Indicated for Depression. Patient is very sensitive to noise. Patient fears arrest on account of a supposed crime.

Biochemic Medicines:

Mind - Depressed Mood: Calc Fl, Calc sulph, Kali Phos, Nat Mur.

Calc Fluor: It is indicated for great depression. There is groundless fear of financial ruin. There is disposition to set a higher value on money than natural to him.

Calc sulph: It is indicated for changeable mood. Also for absent minded & irritable people. Patient is anxious > in open air. He is disconteded, full of tear.

Kali Phos: Useful for Great depression. Patient looks upon the dark side of everything, dark forebodings. There is great despondency about buissness and pecuniary affairs. It is suited for person having dullness, want of energy, slightest labors seems a heavy task. Homesickness, hunted by vision of past and longer often then sighing depression.

References:

Homoeopathic Materia Medica by Dr. Wilium Boericke

Homoeopathic Therapeutics by Dr. Lilinenthal

Allen's Key Notes

Leaders in Homoeopathic Therapeutics

Synthesis Repertory by Dr. Fredrich Scroyens Edition 8.1

Homoeopathic Repertory By Dr. Kent

Twelve Tissue Remedies of Schussler by Boericke & Dewey

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