Headache Differentials

[Lynn Cremona]

Here is a site where someone listed "his" differentials for headaches
http://homeopathicmiracles.spaces.live. ... c=BlogPart
Headaches:

Newer Version:
Cause
Belladona:
Bursting, face red, from sun stroke.
China:
Bursting, scalp tender to touch, from loss of fluids, ringing in ears.
Glonin:
Ill effects of sun and heat, bursting, throbbing, worse least jar, blood rushes up.
Silica:
Sensitive to cold, wraps head, debility due to over use of brain, begins on neck
and ends over one eye.
Spigelia:
Starts at dawn, peaks mid-day, better evening, at base of brain, worse least jar;
violent palpitation. Thread worms.
Epiphegus:
from getting tired from work, salivation, better sleep.
Melilotus:
Congestion of head with pulsating, bursting pain, ameliorated by rest,
discharges (epitaxis etc.) relieve.
Bryonia:
In first warm weather, worse least movement, better hard pressure.
Location
Cimicifuga:
Orbital
Gelsemium:
Begins on neck, tight or bursting, worse mental exertion.
Phosphoric Acid:
Pressing on vertex, worse least noise.
Eryngium:
Discharge of urine with semen, frontal headache.
Sensation
Cactus:
As if weight on vertex or vice like gripping, relieved by pressure.
Coffea:
As if nail driven in, hypersensitive, toothache, pains intolerable.
Ferrum Met:
Pulsating headache with red face, vertigo, sensitive to noise.
Igantia:
As if nail driven in, aversion to smoke of tobacco.
Kali Bichromicum:
Blurred vision before headache.
Natrum Mur:
Migraine, hammering, may be preceded by misty vision or zig zag.
Irritable, weeps easily, worse heat, sea side, mental effort, craves salt.
---------------------------
Older Version:
Arg. Nit. _ Hemicrania, feels better tightly wrapped, , vertigo with buzzing In ears –Gels
Bell – red puffed face, throbbing catroids, mouth and throat very dry. Inflammations
streak out in radii from a centre. Worse after 3 AM or midnight. Better covering and
keeping the head high, agg. By cold worse least jar – abdomen, wants wrapped up like
Sil. Glonine cant bear hat.
Bry – Bursting in hot weather
Epiphegus virginiana (Beechdrop, Cancer-root) - Cures headaches coming on after a hard day's work, over-fatigue from work, eye strain, or excitement, what is often called "tired headache”, neurasthenic, and nervous headaches. Pressing, in temples from without inwards, > for a good sleep
Gelsemium - sometimes the headache is relieved by a profuse flow of urine. (Lac
defloratum has a profuse flow of urine during sick headache to which it is adapted, but
the pain is not so markedly relieved by the flow). Gelsemium has also a sick headache
that is preceded by blindness, patient wants to lie with head raised upon a high pillow.
Glonine- Belladonna and Glonoine both have the fullness, pain and throbbing, but that of
Glonoine is more intense and sudden in its onset, and, on the other hand, subsides more
rapidly when relieved. Belladonna is better by bending the head backward; Glonoine
worse. Belladonna is made worse by having the head uncovered, and suffers from having
the hair cut; Glonoine must have the head uncovered, can't bear to wear his hat, least jar
or shaking of it greatly aggravates the pain..
Melilotus also has great congestion to the head, with pain and sense of fullness. Not being
so thoroughly proven as Belladonna and Glonoine, we cannot so clearly indicate the
exact place for it, but there is one very prominent symptom which always makes one
think of it, viz.: "Glowing redness of the face." No remedy that I know of has it more
strongly. Glonoine and Belladonna may both have very red face; on the other hand, a
pale face, with the other congestive symptoms, does not contraindicate them, but does
Melilotus. Then, again, with Melilotus the head symptoms are often relieved by a profuse
epistaxis
Ignatia - Headache as if a nail there driven out through the side of the head relieved by
lying on it. Ignatia headache is sometimes accompanied by hunger like that of Psorinum.
Ignatia cases, in addition to the aggravation when swallowing liquids and relief from
swallowing solids. This is like Lachesis, you remember, but is the reverse of Baptisia,
which can swallow liquids only; the least solid food gags, “extreme aversion to tobacco
smoke."
Iris Versicolor - Iris is also one of our best remedies for sick headache. These headaches
seem to be of gastric or hepatic origin, and often begin with a blur before the eyes.
Kali Bichromicum - The pains are peculiar. They appear in small spots, which can be
covered with the point of a finger. This is markedly so with the pains in the head. In sick
headache often so. Farrington says: "There are quite a number of remedies having blind
headache, but Kali bichromicum is the best of them."
Lachesis - It is one of our best remedies for sun headaches; of course it does not compare
with Glonoine for the immediate effects of sunstroke, but does come in well after the first
effects are overcome by that remedy. The patient is troubled with headache every time he
is exposed to the sun's heat, and the trouble has become chronic (Nat. carb.).
very pale face, and the patient sleeps into the headache
The remedies that stand nearest Glonoine in their effect on the head I believe to be Belladonna and Melilotus.
Belladonna and Glonoine both have the fullness, pain and throbbing, but that of
Glonoine is more intense and sudden in its onset, and, on the other hand, subsides more rapidly when relieved.
Glonoine is better adapted to the first or congestive stage of inflammatory diseases of the brain, while Belladonna goes further and may still be the appropriate remedy after the inflammatory stage is fully initiated.
Belladonna is better by bending the head backward; Glonoine worse.
Belladonna is made worse by having the head uncovered, and suffers from having the hair cut; Glonoine must have the head uncovered, can't bear to wear his hat, or wants the hair cut. Belladonna is worse lying down, even if he keeps still;
Glonoine, though sometimes worse after lying down, is also sometimes better when lying still.
One symptom very characteristic of Glonoine is, that the patient carries the head very carefully, for the least jar or shaking of it greatly aggravates the pain. Another peculiar symptom is, it seems to the patient that there is not only throbbing, but there is an undulating sensation as if the brain were moving in waves synchronous with the pulse.
There is more disturbance of the heart action with Glonoine than with Belladonna, though both have it strongly.
Glonoine has a sensation of rush of blood to the heart or chest.
Melilotus also has great congestion to the head, with pain and sense of fullness. Not being so thoroughly proven as Belladonna and Glonoine, we cannot so clearly indicate the exact place for it, but there is one very prominent symptom which always makes one think of it, viz.:
"Glowing redness of the face." No remedy that I know of has it more strongly.
Glonoine and Belladonna may both have very red face; on the other hand, a pale face, with the other congestive symptoms, does not contraindicate them, but does Melilotus. Then, again, with Melilotus the head symptoms are often relieved by a profuse epistaxis, which is also another very prominent symptom of this remedy. I cured a very bad case of typhus cerebralis, and also a case of insanity of long standing, with this remedy, being guided to it by these symptoms.
Lycopodium
If a patient complains of a headache, no matter of what kind and if the headache is distinctly better by taking off the hat or other covering, Lycopodium will probably be the remedy. Also, better from warm drinks, right sided, or symptoms move from right to left, aggravation 4-8pm.
Magnesia Mur - it has a peculiar nervous headache, which is better from strong pressure
(Pulsatilla), or wrapping head up warmly (Silicea). This headache also is often hysterical.
Melilotus Alba - intense redness of the face, with throbbing carotids, which is often >
(ameliorated) by a profuse epistaxis.
Natrum Carb -aggravated by mental exertion. The patient is unable to think or perform
any mental labor without headache (Argentum, nit., Sabadilla) vertigo or a sense of
stupefaction . Persons suffering from over-heating from the sun may find relief from
Natrum carb., Glonoine, Lachesis or Lyssin.
Natrum mur - is one of our best remedies for chronic headaches. They come in
paroxysms and would, by their intense throbbing nature, cause one to think of
Belladonna, only that they occur mostly in the anæmic, and the face is pale, or at least
slightly flushed. If the face is red and burning, eyes injected, and pain of beating or
throbbing nature, we would immediately think of such remedies as Melilotus,
Belladonna, or Nux vom., and then look for concomitant symptoms to decide between
them. The headaches of Natrum mur. are very apt to occur after the menstrual period, as
if caused by loss of blood, and you know that China also has throbbing headache in such
cases. With Natrum the throbbing headache occurs whether the menses be scanty or
profuse. Natrum mur. also cures the headaches of school girls, and here it may be
difficult to choose between it and Calcarea phos., both remedies also being particularly
adapted to anæmic states. Map tongue is found under Natrum mur., Arsenicum alb.,
Lachesis, Nitric acid, and Taraxacum. Intense thirst of salt is well known, and keep pace
with the hunger. Now this is the case with diabetes, for which Natrum is a curative
Petroleum - Petroleum has headache in the occiput, which is as heavy as lead, also
vertigo in the occiput.
Pulsatilla - Pressure, or tying up tightly, relieves the headaches." (Argentum nit., Apis
mellifica). Silicea is its chronic.
Sanguinaria - Sick headache. Pain commences in the back of the head, rises and spreads
over the head, and settles down over the right eye (left eye, Spigelia), with nausea and
vomiting; patient wants to be in a dark room and perfectly quiet.
Sepia - is one of our best remedies in hemicrania of women of the Sepia temperament,
and who are suffering from uterine trouble, the pain comes in terrific shocks, so as to jerk
the head.
Silicea - This condition of weakness seems to attack the general nervous system,
affecting the spine, and so we get those cerebro-spinal headaches, or headaches beginning
in the nape of the neck and running forward over the head to the eyes, for which Silicea is
so useful. Vertigo also ascends from the nape to head, < looking up. (Pulsatilla).
Relieved by "wrapping up the head" (Magnesia mur.).
Spigelia - The headaches are generally one-sided, beginning in the occiput and extending
forward, and settling over the left eye (right, Sang. and Silicea). They are aggravated by
the least noise or jar. They increase with the rising of the sun and decrease with its going
down (Natrum mur., Tabacum), and the eye on the affected side often runs clear water.
(Chelidon. maj., right side with water gushing out). Spigelia is so efficacious, the patient
is made worse from motion, noise, inspiration or moving the eyes, and especially in cold,
damp, rainy weather. It makes us think of Bryonia, Kalmia and Natrum mur., and Actæa
(motion), Belladonna (noise), and China (touch, especially light touch).
Lynn

--
Imagine Peace