Homoeopathic treatment of Eczema – A Case Report

Abstract– Eczema is a condition in which patches of skin become inflamed, itchy, cracked, and rough. In Some type of eczema blisters may be present.  A Case of eczema treated with Homoeopathy is presented. This is a case of 60 years old male suffering from eczema since last 10 years which had neither responded to conventional nor Ayurveda treatment. He received several homoeopathic medicines with no effect until he finally received the medicine Argentum Nitricum 200 to 10M potency. Through this case we are able to appreciate the importance of homoeopathic similimum which can provide great relief to the patient.

Keyword – Eczema, Argentum Nitricum, Homoeopathy

Introduction –

The term eczema means to boil out, so it seems that the skin is ‘boiling out’ or ‘oozing out’ in eczema.² Eczema is a superficial inflammation of the skin characterized by redness, itching, edema, oozing, crusting, scaling, vesicles and occasional lichenification. Eczema is synonymously used with dermatitis, but it is often used to refer to atopic dermatitis, which is the most common type of dermatitis. Eczema is diagnosed clinically on the basis of the patient’s presenting symptoms.¹ The exact pathophysiology is not fully understood but there is an initial selective activation of Th2-type CD4 lymphocytes  in the skin which drives the inflammatory process.³ Eczema is classified as viz: Atopic eczema, Seborrheic, Discoid, Irritant, Allergic eczema, Asteatotic, Gravitational, Lichen simplex and Pompholyx.⁴

These may reveal peripheral eosinophilia, raised serum IgE to a variety of common environmental agents (detected by radioallergosorbent tests or skin-prick tests). However, they are not needed routinely for diagnosis.⁵

CASE –

A 60 years old male patient had visited In O.P.D. of N.H.M.C Lucknow on ………. with complaint of skin eruptions. There was intense itching, burning and skin was cracked from where yellowish discharge was oozing which was very sticky in character. Lesions were present on the hand, belly, back and legs since last 10 years. Complaints were aggravated after eating sweets, after mosquito bite, constipation, excessive use of mobile and laptop and in general in summer season. Itching and burning ameliorated after application of hot water. In addition to this he had severe constipation with no desire for stool, since last 10 years.

Medical History – He had taken allopathic treatment for more than 5 years and after that Ayurveda treatment which given temporary relief for some days and then recurrence again. He had also taken homoeopathic treatment but with no significant improvement.

Family history – His father suffered from eczema, bronchial asthma and constipation. His mother suffered from vitiligo and his elder brother also from constipation.

Lesion of hands and abdominal region before treatment

Physical General:

     Appearance – Thin, tall, fair complexion. His face was  

                              Depressed with anxiety and nervousness.

     Appetite – Diminished

      Desire – Sweets, but avoids taking sweets due to aggravation

     Aversion – Spicy things  

     Liking – Hot food, Cow milk

     Thermal – Chilly

     Thirst – Thirst less

     Sleep – Good

     Dreams – Nothing significant

     Perspiration – Scanty, offensive

     Stool – Constipated, no desire for stool, offensive stool

     Urine – normal

Mental Generals – By nature patient is very mild, timid, lack of self-confidence. He is very religious. He is introverted, reserved and can’t express his feeling due to lack of self-courage and his timid nature. Patient has weak concentration with weak memory can’t take self-decision and also frightened easily on silly matters. Patient has fear of narrow places and aversion to go in a crowd. Patient has dry face and wrinkled skin. Patient feels worse by travelling as everything is new and different to handle.

Miasmatic Analysis:

Miasmatic analysis of all the presenting symptoms were processed with the help of comparison of the chronic miasms, which shows the mixed miasmatic condition with predominance of psora.⁶

Totality of symptoms 

   Mind – Timidity, Reserved

   Mind – Fear, crowd in

   Mind – Sensitive noise to

   Mind – Religious

   Thermal – chilly

   H/O – Abuse of medication

   H/O – Suppressed skin disease

   Desire – Sweets

   Aggravation – From sweets

   Thirst – Thirst less

   Perspiration – Scanty

  Eruption – Itching, Burning

  Eruption – Discharges – sticky

Analysis of the case

Proper case taking was done as per the directions of the Organon of Medicine and Homoeopathic philosophy. After analysis and evaluation of the symptoms of this case, the totality was constructed and the case was repertorized with the help of Kent’s Repertory in Hompath classic M.D software (Version 13.9.0) (Dr. Jawahar J Shah, Mind Technologies Pvt. Ltd, Mumbai, India) and group of medicines are found. The repertorial chart shown here:

Reportorial analysis

Arg-n – 12/5

Lycopodium – 9/4

Calc. – 8/5

Sulphur – 8/4

Arsenic – 7/4

Prescription

19-11-2020 – Argentum Nitricum – 200/1 dose

                          S.L – 30/tds for 15 days

Follow – up  

Date	Symptoms	Prescribed medicine
5-12-2020	Discharges from eruption decreases slightly but itching and burning slightly increases. Constipation slight better But remaining complaints same.	SL-30   for 15 days
22-12-2021	Discharges from eruption of hands decreases and slight improvement in itching and burning in eruptions of hands. But remaining complaints same.	Arg. Nit – 200/1 dose             S.L – 30 / tds
10-01-2021	Discharges from upper part of body reduce completely but itching and burning increases in the eruptions of legs But remaining complaints not improve.	Arg. Nitricum 1M /1 dose S.L – 30 /TDS
1-02-2021	Eruptions from upper part of body start to decreases Appetite – better Constipation – better	SL-30   for 15 days
2-03-2021	Eruptions of hands and upper body parts decrease 50%. No discharges from eruptions of lower part of body but itching and burning remain same.	S.L – 30 / tds
14-04-2021	Eruptions of upper part of body disappear 90%. Eruptions of lower part of body start to disappear. Appetite better. But having constipation	Arg. Nitricum 1M/1 dose S.L – 30 / tds
08-05-2021	Eruptions of lower body parts is disappeared 50% and in upper body part eruption disappear completely. Constipation better.	S.L – 30 / tds
14-06-2021	Eruptions of lower body parts disappear 90%. Constipation better	S.L – 30 / tds
30-7-2021	Eruptions not disappear completely Constipation and appetite better		Arg.Nit. – 10M/1dose S.L – 30/tds
6-9-2021	Eruptions completely disappear from whole body	S.L – 30/tds
15-11-2021	Improvement stable in all domain with no recurrence.	S.L – 30/tds

Discussion – According to aphorism no 272 to 274 of Organon of medicine, only a single, simple medicine was given to the patient at one time.⁹ Argentum Nitricum is a compound of silver, argentum whose main theme is performance and nitrate whose main theme is “feeling of sudden danger”. The two things when comes together in form of Argentum Nitricum, so the main theme becomes “Performance in sudden danger or crisis¹⁰.”

Arg. Nit. 200 was prescribed on 19/11/2020 and follow-up was continuing for 1 years which is given in detail in [Table 1]. Treatment with Arg. Nit. 200 with increasing potencies (200, 10M) was continued from 19/11/2020 for the next 12 months. Initial improvement on dermatological and constipation symptoms was found with treatment by Arg. Nit. 200 and then improvement was stopped and the condition became standstill. The repetition and increasing the potencies were done according to the response following the homoeopathic philosophy. For the expectation of further improvement, the higher potency of same remedy (Arg. Nit.1M) was prescribed on 10/01/2021. It supports Kent’s second prescription “if a remedy has benefitted the patient, never leave it until one or more doses of higher potency has been given.” After 6 months of this treatment, stable improvement was found in Eczema and Constipation and also complete remission was achieved in all domains. The patient continued the follow-up for 1 year with no recurrence of skin and Gastric symptoms. Treatment and follow-ups with responses are given in detail in [Table 1].

Conclusion – When the patient came to me, he was hopeless about his recovery but by giving Homoeopathic similimum we had given good results which seemed apparently difficult. Period of treatment varies according to the area of disease involved, chronicity of disease and individual response of patient. It is greatness of homoeopathy that now he is free from steroid as well as eczema. Homoeopathic drug is cost effective and have no side effect and the recurrence rate after homoeopathic treatment in eczema is very less.  Medicine, selected on the basis of totality of symptoms and through individualization which covers the patient’s miasmatic background, has the capability to cure the patient at the deeper level which leads to permanent restoration of health.

 Non-recurrence of patient’s skin complaints in past 1 year suggests that Eczema can be treated successfully through individualized homoeopathic treatment.

References:

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10:  https://hpathy.com/clinical-cases/a-case-of-argentum-nitricum.

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Jyoti Singh, Priyanka, Veer Bahadur, Kirti Mishra