Dr Sharan Dsouza
The fundamental principle of LAW OF SIMPLEX is a standard benchmark for prescribing in homoeopathy mentioned in aphorism 273 where Hahnemann says “In no case under treatment is it necessary and therefore not permissible to administer to a patient more than one single simple medicinal substance at one time”.1
In the foot note of 272 of 6th edition of Organon master writes that: “Some homoeopathists have made the experiment, in cases where the deemed one remedy homoeopathically suitable for one portion of the symptoms of a case of disease, and a second for anther portion of the symptoms of a case of disease, and a second for another portion, of administering both remedies at the same time; but I earnestly deprecate such a hazardous experiment, which can never but necessary, though it sometimes may be of use.”1
Polypharmacy is defined as prescribing more than one medicine at a time.2 though in present times we find that there is a practice of unacknowledged Polypharmacy widespread which is seldom admitted by homoeopathic practitioners.
Luc de Schepper in the year 1999 writes an article “The real danger to Homeopathy” in which he writes that Polypharmacy (giving many prescriptions is dangerous in homeopathy as well as in Allopathy. He says that remedies bear a powerful force. If they can consistently cure the so-called “incurable diseases,” they must be highly active agents. Each remedy delivers an energetic “punch” to the Vital Force, and it is the secondary response of the Vital Force which acts against the illness and heals the patient.
Giving too many remedies at once can leave the Vital Force punched down like a boxer staggering to his knees. From his clinical experience, he writes he has seen patients who have been given so many remedies by previous homeopaths that their Vital Force no longer responds to the single well-chosen remedy, which could have cured their case in the first place before they were rendered incurable by polypharmacy.
The simillimum, delivers an energetic impact which exactly matches the symptom picture of the patient. Any other remedy will not be a perfect match, that is, it will have symptoms in its symptom picture which do not match the patient’s. These aspects of the remedy can stimulate the Vital Force to create new symptoms, called accessory symptoms of the remedy. It is only logical that if more than one remedy is given at once or in close succession, only one can be the simillimum and the others are likely to create accessory symptoms. The result of these mixtures can be a tangled mess of symptoms which make it impossible for the homeopath to follow the case. I have seen these patients too. It is bad enough that we have to sort out the patient’s true symptoms from those induced by their allopathic medications.3
In a research study conducted in Netherlands in the year 1996, the objective of the study was to establish whether there is efficacy of combination remedies in homoeopathy from controlled trials on humans. On 58 trials single homoeopathic remedies were given and combination of several homoeopathic remedies was tested on 24 trials. It was a controlled double blind study. The results showed a positive trend regardless of the quality of the trial or variety of homoeopathy used. Conclusion: at the moment the evidence of clinical trial is positive but not sufficient to draw definitive conclusions because most of the trials were low quality and because of unknown role of publication bias. This indicates that there is legitimate case for evaluation of homoeopathy, but only by means of well performed trails.4
In a survey I conducted on the sale of patents, biochemics, potencies in 3 homoeopathic pharmacies near Basaweshwarnagar,Rajajinagar and Wilson garden for the year 2014,2015,2016 the statistics shows the average sale of patents is 38%(2014),37% (2015) and 41.6% in (2016), sale of biochemics to be 23%(2014),21%(2015), 25% (2016), the sale of potencies found to be 23%(2014),15%(2015), 20.8%(2016) in Basaweshwarnagar.
The sale of 30%(2014),33%(2015),33%(2016),sale of biochemics 16.6%(2014), 22%(2015), 16%(2016)and the sale of potencies 17%(2014), 22%(2015) , 33%(2016) in Rajajinagar. The sale of patents 37.5%(2014), 40%(2015), 42%(2016), sale of biochemics 17.5%(2014), 10% (2015), 21.4%(2016), and sale of potencies found to be 20%(2014), 21%(2015) and 14.2%(2016) in Wilson garden.
Even though we have the standard benchmark of prescribing a single remedy at a time then why do we find the extensive sale of combination remedies, patents?
Dr Kent writes “If our school ever gives up the strict inductive method of Hahnemann, we are lost and deserve only to be mentioned as a caricature in the history of medicine.”
Hence there is a need for standardization in practice. The further experiments should be aimed to explore if there is any hidden truth behind such unacknowledged polypharmacy practices and its relevance in modern day practice
List of references
- Hahnemann Samuel. Aphorism 273.preface. Organon of Medicine. Sixth edition. New Delhi; B. Jain Publishers (P) Ltd; 2008. P.226 227,xviii.
- https://www.homeobook.com/hahnemanns-guidelines-on-poly-pharmacy/.
- MD, Phd, Schepper De Luc. The Real danger to Homoepathy. 1999 November [cited 2018 October 28].Available from https://abchomeopathy.com/forum2.php/521911
- Kleijen Jos, Knipschild Paul, Riet ter Gerbert. Clinical trials on homoeopathy.BMJ 1991; 1991 Febraury 9[cited 2017 March 12]; 9(2):316-323.
- Available from “http://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/”url=http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/
This post is really good read but sometimes A homeopath have to act according to situation and have to take the patient’s pain out before he go for a time taking constitutional remedy.