To tell or not to tell

[Ann McKay]

Hi

What experiences have you had around telling or not telling a client the name of the remedy you are giving them?

As a result do you hold to a specific policy regarding remedy disclosure in your practice?

Thanks

Annette

[Shannon Nelson]

I normally tell the name, and also what the remedy is. Usually not a problem, but once when I tried to give syphilinum, the girl never did take it, and I had the distinct impression it was because of the name! Because she is pretty fastidious, I was afraid of that and had tried to have the pharmacy send it with a label saying Leuticum instead, but they said they couldn't do that unless I was an MD?!?! So they sent it saying syphilinum, and we will never know whether it would have worked or not...

OTOH her brother was really delighted to learn about his remedy--medorrhinum. (Took it, and it worked great.)

I am not above "sweetening" the truth when needed, tho, taking the patient's needs into account! I have on a couple of occasions asked permission to not tell them until after we'd seen the remedy working or not, and not been turned down for that either.

Shannon

[John Harvey]

Hi, Annette --

In my experience, a patient who understands the principle behind the prescription expresses no temptation to treat the medicine as something to think about repeating through self-medication, especially once he or she understands the harm that unchanged repetition can cause to the healing process.

Cheers --

John

[Fran Sheffield]

I always provide the name though I may ask the person (and explain why) not to do any research on it until the next appointment.

I think this is an area we have to be very careful regarding. In Australia there is very clear legislation about labelling requirements for medicines and supplements and I should imagine that would be true for elsewhere as well.
--
Kind regards,

Fran Sheffield
Homeopathy Plus! (Tutorials - Remedies - Immunisation)
http://www.homeopathyplus.com.au
Do No Harm Initiative (Free Information on Homeopathic Immunisation)
http://www.d-n-h.org
Homeopathy for Autism (Guidelines for Treatment - Search for Practitioners)
http://www.homeopathy4autism.com

[Jeff Tikari gmail]

In India very few homeopaths divulge the Name and a very few want to know.

Jeff

Sent on my BlackBerry® from Vodafone

________________________________

From: Fran Sheffield
Sender: minutus@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2010 10:42:33 +1100
To:
ReplyTo: minutus@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Minutus] To tell or not to tell
I always provide the name though I may ask the person (and explain why) not to do any research on it until the next appointment.

I think this is an area we have to be very careful regarding. In Australia there is very clear legislation about labelling requirements for medicines and supplements and I should imagine that would be true for elsewhere as well.
--
Kind regards,

Fran Sheffield
Homeopathy Plus! (Tutorials - Remedies - Immunisation)
http://www.homeopathyplus.com.au
Do No Harm Initiative (Free Information on Homeopathic Immunisation)
http://www.d-n-h.org
Homeopathy for Autism (Guidelines for Treatment - Search for Practitioners)
http://www.homeopathy4autism.com

[Tanya Marquette]

I recall this issue discussed in my early years with homeopathy. The general concensus then was to reveal
the name, particulary if the person wanted to know. Personally, I resent it if someone won't disclose information
on a process that I am expected to follow.
That being said, there are some people who want to know in order to decide whether THEY liked the remedy.
Then there are people who will react to the idea of the substance from which the remedy came. It does require
some creative thinking and relating.
tanya
________________________________

[Ann McKay]

Misscommunication.
John, I'm asking about whether you tell the client the name of the remedy or whether you withhold the name of the remedy so they won't go looking it up and then read things into it or not into it.

Annette

[Paul Booyse]

Hi Anette,
I tell all patient's the name of the remedy EXCEPT if they are :
homeopaths
students of homeopathy
patients who have a boericke or other MM
patients who always look stuff up on the internet.
These patients I only tell the remedy after we do follow-up. As for patients who understand the principle behind the prescription, homepaths are the worst and in my experience most likely to take matters into their own hands.
regards,
paul

[John Harvey]

Hi, Annette --

Yes, I see. I think a similar consideration applies, actually: if the client really understands that the medicine's applications are much broader than the symptoms of any one patient, then there shouldn't be a problem even if he or she does look it up. Of course, some people will never get the principle, but in my experience patients always do.

Cheers!

John

[Dale Moss]

Annette,
You can pretty much tell from the remedy needed whether this is going to be an issue or not. I have many patients who never ask what I'm giving them, though I will usually tell them if I think knowledge of the remedy's name is not likely to prejudice their case. If a patient wants to know the name, I'll tell -- but add that I'll discuss why I prescribed it at our follow-up. Every so often you get a patient who can't wait to look it up and argue over whether or not the remedy really "fits" them. So I'll warn those I think likely to go this route that the snippets of information presented in books and on the Internet are only fragments of the picture, not the whole.
Peace,
Dale