psoriasis in child (long)

[Liana Mihai]

Dear Soroush,

I can certainly understand this and I do actually
share your concerns regarding the kind of
repertorization where the rubrics are chosen to match
a specific remedy. In my opinion, this is one of the
common mistakes a homeopath may be prone to make at
the beginning of his/her career. From what I’ve seen,
it happens especially if one attempts to “guess” the
remedy during the case-taking process and before the
rubrics were selected, so that the subsequent
repertorization process becomes biased.

You raised a number of points regarding the choice of
rubrics, overall repertorization and subsequent
results. So let’s analyze these aspects individually.

The case posted by Rochelle is of a child who has been
receiving treatment with constitutional remedies over
a number of years. Thanks to homeopathy, she has
improved significantly, “feels fit and well in herself
“ and is now free of most of her previous complaints
with the exception of this eruption, possibly
psoriasis. The main complaint is therefore, a local
symptom that did not respond to the constitutional
treatment received so far.

Obviously, the case analysis depends solely on the
information provided to the list. The features that
stand out, in my opinion and based on Rochelle’s
description of this case, are as follows. The
selection is based on the presumption that the aspects
highlighted by the treating homeopath were really
significant.

The main complaint is the eruption described as “odd
spots on her body with silvery flakes” and this is the
only peculiar aspect about it. Left arm. “Sometimes
when they are sore she will put cold water on them to
soothe”. Other local modalities and sensations were
not strong or peculiar enough to be considered in
repertorization.

Next step is to look for concomitants. One other
physical sx present at the most recent visit was the
headache: “She arrived with a mild headache inside the
vertex” This 10 year-old patient has had headaches in
the past and therefore, since this is a current
complaint, it’s not common in children, and it
occurred in more than just an episode, I decided to
take it into account.

In terms of concomitants belonging to the mental and
emotional sphere, there were two aspects emphasized.
According to Rochelle, “The strange thing is that when
I ask this child a question she can't give me an
answer. She just says nothing and if I push her too
much she will dissolve into tears (she has done on
previous occasions)”. Sure it would be helpful to know
what kind of questions are those that she reacts to in
this particular pattern and why, also what does the
homeopath mean by “ pushing her too much”. Though I
don’t see any reason why one would question the
therapist’s interviewing skills. Without any
additional information available at this point, I
think “Weeping when questioned” remains the rubric
that describes this repeating pattern of reaction
satisfactorily. I agree that other people might look
at it in a different way and I will welcome any
further comments on this. Other rubrics to consider
might be possibly MIND - ANSWERING - questioned; does
not answer, when or MIND - ANSWERING - aversion to
answer or MIND - ANSWERING - refusing to answer. Does
the patient have to weep with any question in order to
choose this rubric? It would be helpful to find out
what are the provings of the remedies listed in this
rubric showing in this respect and we might get the
answer. Unfortunately, I was unable to find this
information.

The second aspect that I believe deserves attention is
that “She is obsessed with dogs at the moment –
drawing them.” So, what I see here is a child who is
kind, generous, has no fears according to the
homeopath and who is not simply drawing dogs but is
obsessed by them. I might be wrong in choosing the
rubric “love for animals” but this rubric seemed a
good choice to me in that it combines a positive
emotion with a strong focus on animals. Far fetched?
That’s a possibility, too. That’s why my suggestion to
Rochelle was to try and gets more details from the
patient /mother to clarify this further. She might
also find out if compassion for animals is there and
how strong this is.

Patient is generally chilly; food - no real likes or
dislikes; no other generals listed. No significant sx
here, nothing strange, rare or particular to be
considered. This information is useful only for the
purpose of differentiating between the possible
remedies.

Repertorization with Radar 8.1.40:
1. MIND - WEEPING - questioned; when (3): cimic,
crot-h,lach. I believe Sepia should also be here
(Clarke: Puls. cries when telling her symptoms, Sep.
weeps when questioned about her symptoms)
2. MIND - ANIMALS - love for animals (20): aeth, ambr,
bar-c, bufo, calc, calc-p, carc, caust, lac-del,
lac-f, lac-leo, limest-b, med, nat-m, nuph, phos,
psor, puls,sulph, tarent
3. HEAD - PAIN - Vertex (245) - includes Nuphar1
4. SKIN - ERUPTIONS - scaly - silvery (1): Nuph2
5. SKIN - ERUPTIONS - cold - applications - amel(1):
led1

Needless to say that I had no idea which remedies will
result from this analysis. I was really surprised to
see that a small rx such as Nuphar appears in 3
rubrics out of 5. Other remedies resulting from this
analysis were Cimic, Sulph, Bufo.

To continue answering your questions, the rubric
“ERUPTIONS - scaly – silvery” comes from Allen’s
Encyclopedia of Pure Materia Medica, which describes
the following under Nuphar: “There appeared on
different parts of the body a number of red blotches,
tolerably regular in outline, ovoid or circular,
prominent, and covered with little scales of a silvery
white, in short, resembling psoriasis”. Head Pain
Vertex comes from the same source.

So this is the reason why I suggested Nuphar as a
possible remedy for this case. A small remedy to
follow a polychrest in a one-sided condition. It is
for Rochelle to decide what she wants to do. I feel
that she is the only one who knows the patient better
than anybody, is able to get more information directly
from the source and therefore, can differentiate
between remedies and find the best remedy to fit the
case. I asked her to share with us the response
obtained with the remedy she has chosen. Hopefuly,
we’ll hear back from her, so that we can all learn
from this case.

I see that my message ended up being longer than I
anticipated so I’ll stop here. I hope that you will
find herein the answer to all your questions. I would
appreciate it if you could share with us your views
about this case, as well as how you would analyze and
repertorize it. I’m sure this would be a great
opportunity to reinforce the diversity of opinions on
this list and help us all enhance our knowledge in
homeopathy.

Thanks in advance,

Liana
Liana Mihai
____________________________________________________________________________________
No need to miss a message. Get email on-the-go
with Yahoo! Mail for Mobile. Get started.
http://mobile.yahoo.com/mail

[Rochelle]

Thanks Liana for your analysis which I found very interesting to read.

You wrote:-


This time it was me trying to get the sensation of the headache in her
Vertex out of her. I even gave her suggestions when she didn't/couldn't
answer like Banging, Aching, Sore, etc- this would have been the "pushing
her too much" part. Mum tried to explain that she thinks that her mind goes
blank but this is only because Mum herself has had this feeling.

Previously - when she said she couldn't get to sleep because she had too
many thought and I asked what those thoughts were she got very upset, not
because she was bothered about them but because she didn't really know or
couldn't remember what the thoughts were about. (The Calc 200 prescribed
then got her sleeping better!!)

Looking back - her only fears seem to be "big spiders".

At the moment I am waiting to see if the Hypericum WP daily has got rid of
her coccyx pain from when she fell.

Regards
Rochelle
Registered Homeopath
EFT(Advanced) Practitioner
www.southporthomeopathy.co.uk

[Soroush Ebrahimi]

Dear Liana

We will know the answer if Rochelle decides to give Nuphar.

Weeping when questioned - I have stated my understanding of it. She does
not cry at every question - only when pressed.
Refusal to answer is what was observed.

The next main problem is the description of SILVERY from Rochelle . Please
compare this to the photos that were later submitted.
What you see is a red raised eruption with white / ivory coloured flakes on
it.
Silver is not white and has a grey tinge to it.

Head - Pain Vertex = Perfect!

Rochelle gave us:
"She is artistic, creative, kind, generous and patient and still very laid
back.
She is obsessed with dogs at the moment – drawing them."
She is really obsessed with drawing dogs - perhaps not with the animal
itself.
Any way, Love for animals - no matter how and why it was arrived at, what
makes it as something requiring cure? (Useful confirmatory symptom only,
but you are using as something to build the case on).

Skin cold apps amel = Perfect

My argument was the choice of rubrics was dodgey.

Rgds
Soroush