Acute pain is one of the leading ailment for which a patient presents as an emergency in a private practice. The pain can arise from multiple organs and locations ranging from ear, teeth, and head up to abdomen and spine. The type of pain also can be varied - from colic to neuralgias. In such situation of acute pain, patients always necessarily need a remedy that can give them immediate relief from the painful crisis. To obtain it, they usually opt for allopathic analgesics, but always with a caution since they are known to cause some adverse effects. This gives rise to a pertinent question from patients visiting homeopaths, "doctor, don't you have any pain-killers in homeopathy?"
The answer is yes, we do have. In this article, we will discuss the approach to select an appropriate remedy for acute pain.
Generally the acute painful situation is seen in patients suffering with some underlying chronic ailment that is characterized by acute exacerbations, such as sciatica, renal calculi, cholecystitis or cholelithiasis, angina, dental caries, chronic otitis media, migraine, prolapsed inter-vetebral disc, gout or pelvic inflammatory disease. Prescribing a suitable homeopathic remedy for these acute exacerbations is difficult unless we explore the individual symptomatology comprehensively. Homeopathic practice that rests on the philosophical platform of individualistic remedy selection does not allow a general remedy for all patients, even if they suffer with the same ailment. This is because each and every patient is unique in presentation of the ailment with respect to the cause, manifestations and conditions of aggravation or amelioration. A single remedy cannot cure everybody. Considering this, we usually face two kinds of situations in case of patients presenting with an acute pain.
1. Patient visiting your clinic for the first time - directly in an acute pain situation
In such patients, one needs to take a quick history comprising of the location, sensation, modalities and concomitants, if any. The advantage of this situation is easy to get the entire symptomatology, since the patient in pain is available in front of you, detailing all the symptoms as well as for the observations that are key indicators towards certain remedies. For example, a patient who needs chamomilla for acute pain often presents with uneven congestion on face with one cheek red & hot while the other pale. Belladonna patients often show marked congestion on face, earlobes and eyes. Since patient is in pain, we can ask the patient about various kinds of modalities. If patient has not observed them, you can ask him to check it by actually trying various postures or conditions.
2. Patient presenting with a chronic ailment that pose a risk of developing an acute exacerbation
In this case, the patient is not in pain, but poses a risk of acute pain, or might have experienced it in past. History taking in these patients should ascertain the dispositional features as well as an acute totality that is based on the presenting symptomatology recollected by the patient from his past experience. While we prescribe a deep-acting constitutional remedy, we can also give a set of corresponding acute remedies to keep in stock. By doing this, we can even manage acute pain situation on phone, by selecting an appropriate remedy from this stock, based on the situational manifestations.
Thus, although homeopathy bases its prescription on individual basis, it is not difficult to relieve a patient in an acute painful situation.
