Homoeopathy is a science and this presentation explores the methodology behind understanding, analysing the disease and prescribing medicine to the patient. It defines the key milestones that if followed diligently by any physician can help him end up with a remedy which may prove out to be a panacea for all patient complaints.

1. Essentials of Prescribing
in Homoeopathy
To tread carefully from symptom to remedy
Dr. Hari Singh
Director, HHC Healthcare

2. Prescribing Milestones
Clarity of
Programming
Posology
Homoeopathic
the treatment
concepts
Sound
General
Repertorisation
knowledge of
Management
Materia Medica
Sound Clinical Detailed Case Follow-up /
base history Assessment
3/25/2009 Essentials of Prescribing in Homoeopathy 2

3. Clarity of Homoeopathic concepts
 First and foremost milestone
 There has to be a clear understanding of the concepts
of the
 Law of Similia,
 Single remedy, and
 Minimum dose as promulgated by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann
 Clear understanding of the fine nuances of these
principles will only pave way for an effective homoeo-
therapy
3/25/2009 Essentials of Prescribing in Homoeopathy 3

4. Sound knowledge of Materia Medica
 Homoeopathic Materia Medica has adequate tools in the form of
medicines that are required to cure the diseases
 To employ these medicines effectively, it is necessary to understand the
process of `drug evolution’ in Homoeo-therapy
 Evolution of a drug from its material/crude state to the dynamic/potentised
form
 Detailed study of the Patho-physio-dynamic shift
 Shift in the nature of signs/symptoms produced by the drug in the animal and
healthy human beings, in its toxic crude state and various ultra-high dilutions
 Shift from tissue-affinity of the drug to personality-affinity, is of
paramount importance for rational use of these medicines
3/25/2009 Essentials of Prescribing in Homoeopathy 4

5. Sound Clinical base
 A fairly good knowledge of diseases involving the
 Signs,
 Symptoms and
 Pathological markers
is essential for diagnosing a disease
 It enables the physician to assess the efficacy of
homoeopathic medicine(s) in various diseases
3/25/2009 Essentials of Prescribing in Homoeopathy 5

6. Detailed Case History
 “A well taken case is half the cure”. It helps both the physician and the
patient.
 The physician is helped in gathering all the information useful in the selection
of a similimum
 Patient gains added confidence from the physician having listened to all his
complaints
 A good case taking involves
 patient’s uninterrupted narration of all his sufferings,
 followed by physician’s investigative-interrogation based on his observations
about the patient’s mental and body make-up
 A careful analysis of the symptoms given by the patient is done during
the case taking itself and not at the end
 To ascertain whether the symptoms pertain to the cause or the effect of the
disease
3/25/2009 Essentials of Prescribing in Homoeopathy 6

7. Detailed Case History (cont’d)
 After all the characteristic symptoms have been delineated in
the case, further evaluation of this picture done in the light of
the varying strength of various characteristic symptoms of that
patient becomes necessary
 To make a prescribing portrait of the patient’s illness
 This portrait construes the basic nature of his chronic disease
and is closest to his inherent miasm which is the root cause of all
his diseases
 A Homoeopathic remedy selected on this symptom complex (the
portrait) will undoubtedly be the constitutional remedy
(similimum) of the patient
3/25/2009 Essentials of Prescribing in Homoeopathy 7

8. Repertorisation
 All chronic cases should always be repertorised
 There is high possibility of finding yet other equally or better indicated remedy than the one
that may look obvious to the physician at the first instance from the portrait of the patient
 There is scant symptom information available in most of the
homoeopathic medicines listed in current Materia Medica books
 It is difficult to get a similimum for every patient
 There may, in fact, be more than one medicine similar to the portrait of the disease
 A good repertorisation with the right repertory, therefore, can be a big aid
in selecting an appropriate homoeopathic prescription
 Prescription that is the most similar to the patient
 The result of repertorisation also guides the physician regarding the level
of confidence in his prescription as also the probable outcome of the
selected remedy
 the prognosis to homoeopathic treatment in a particular patient
3/25/2009 Essentials of Prescribing in Homoeopathy 8

9. Programming the treatment
 Programming/planning the medicines in a chronic
disease involves
 Selection of a constitutional medicine
 Preparation of a kit of remedies for the acute exacerbations of the
chronic disease and any associated acute diseases
 These acute prescriptions are primarily regional
remedies that not only suit the acute episode but also
cognate the constitutional remedy well
 In this way, a plan of treatment can be usefully drawn
for a longer period
3/25/2009 Essentials of Prescribing in Homoeopathy 9

10. Posology
 This has always remained a neglected and ill
understood area in homoeopathic treatment.
 It consists of the
 Dosage (potency) and
 Frequency (repetition schedule)
 The golden rule for deciding the potency in any
chronic disease is `Greater the Confidence, Higher the
Potency’ or vice-versa
3/25/2009 Essentials of Prescribing in Homoeopathy 10

11. Posology: Trigger v/s Titre
 The repetition of the dose is decided by the
‘reactivity of the patient’ and not the potency of the
drug or nature of the disease/drug
 In this sense, a single dose of homoeopathic
medicine, even in 30C potency, is to be followed by a
‘wait and watch’ period of at least a week
 This medicine is neither repeated nor changed so long as
there is improvement seen in the patient’s ailment
 It is the ‘Trigger’ & not the ‘Titre’ of homoeopathic
medicine that is needed to initiate/sustain the
healing process in any patient
3/25/2009 Essentials of Prescribing in Homoeopathy 11

12. General Management
 The Diet & Regimen are becoming more important with the
passage of time
 Particularly in the affluent society
 Most of the life-style diseases can be safely managed by a
correction of diet, regimen and stressful conditions
 The need to treat a patient arises only when there is no further
improvement seen in the disease condition despite the best
dietetic correction and/or exercise
 Any medicine given in these pseudo-chronic diseases can even
become harmful to the patient
3/25/2009 Essentials of Prescribing in Homoeopathy 12

13. Follow-up / Assessment
 Though the last ‘milestone’ of ‘essentials of
prescribing’, yet this is equally important in the
treatment of a patient
 Because the selection of second prescription solely depends on how
well the follow-up has been done
 The outcome of homoeo-treatment is assessed on the
basis of
 ‘Kent’s twelve observations’
 ‘Herring’s Law of Cure’,
 Frequency
 Duration,
 Intensity of attacks’, and
 Changes in signs, symptoms and the investigations
3/25/2009 Essentials of Prescribing in Homoeopathy 13

14. Summary
 This may seem a long exercise in the selection of a similium
 A physician who follows these milestones diligently ends up with
a remedy which may in fact prove out to be a panacea for all
patient complaints
 Whereas a physician, who has no patience for patients and
prescribes medicine without taking care of all these
milestones, falls in the category of ‘mongrelopath’
 Homoeopathy, a super-specialty, incorporates treatment of man
as a whole, i.e. Mind, Body and Emotions and to achieve this
goal, each patient of chronic disease needs these ‘Essentials of
Prescribing’
3/25/2009 Essentials of Prescribing in Homoeopathy 14

15. For more information/queries/feedback:
Write to us at: Visit us at:
contact@hhc.co.in www.hhc.co.in
© 2009 by HHC Healthcare
All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored
in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of HHC Healthcare.