Kent's cases 103: Mental Derangement Lachesis Silicea Sulfur Calcarea carbonica Ferrum picricum Lecithin Phosphorus Murex Lycopodium

Case 103
Mental Derangement

Clique em Longevid!

July 23, 1904.
Mrs. E. M. D., aged forty-five years, has been distressed by an adopted
daughter. Finger ends sensitive, does not want them touched.
Spine, sensitive spots-one in dorsal region, one in coccyx. Head sensation
of a steel band over forehead. Used to have menstrual headaches.
Constipation. No children. Sensitive to heat. Feet, ankles and sometimes
legs, cold.
Tearful. Sleep ameliorates. Friend reports: She is very suspicious of her
husband and a neighbor woman, without cause. Father was insane about a
year. Imagines her daughter the cause of her troubles.
Many imaginations; scolds her husband; abuses people without occasion;
will not work, takes no interest in her home. Talks constantly. Headache
mornings, when waking. Perspiration during night. Weary.
Lach. 500.
July 30.
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Grating in joints; an old symptom, continued one day. Stirring here and
there (old symp.). Sleeping well. Less tearful. Pulsating in stomach.
Perspiration in sleep, day and night. Head hot to touch. Conscious of her
uterus.
Sach.
Aug. 13.
Appetite reported improved a week ago, for the first, also more interest in
her work. Perspiration on back and shoulders after first taking Lach.
Twitching of eyes. Loneliness; forsaken sensation. Trembling; tremulous
after doing some housework. Anxious; was always anxious. Abdomen, sore
sensation (0. S.). < respiration. Generally < before a storm. Constipation;
has used enema every day. Feces slip back. Feces knotty.
Silica cm.
Aug. 20.
Hot flushes (0. S.). Less nervous tremor and less headache. Abdomen
sensitive to clothing. Must recline on back to sleep.
Bowels much improved, daily normal evacuation in the morning. Sach. L.
Sept. 21.
Improved; less perspiration.; can sleep while reclining on the side; much
improvement in general; bowels regular until recently. Neck stiff f or a few
days. Roaring sounds in ears, > boring in ears (0. S.). Exertion aggravates.
Heart sensation of pressure over it. Head creeping sensation on vertex.
Sach. lactis
Sept. 29.
Head "f eels so much improved." Spine nervous sensation. Gaining in
general.
Oct. 14. Sil. cm. Followed by an aggravation.
Dec. 14 and Feb. 11, 1905.
Sil. 10m.
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During this period was general improvement: in strength; cold feet; gain in
weight; appetite and stomach improved; constipation; heat flashes;
Prominent symptoms:
Ears ringing noise. Head, heat in vertex; sensation of drawing back, when
waking. Pain in vertex < exertion and fatigue, <noise.
Pain in occiput when laughing. Scalp itching; dryness; biting sensation.
Pulsation, when waking. Chilliness; creeping sensation in night. Small of
back tired when waking. Pain between scapulae. Must sleep on back.
Suspicious of neighbor.
Mar. 22, 1905.
Feet heat at night, extends them outside the covers to cool. Hungry about
10 or 11 a. m., must eat. Cold, damp air penetrating. Chilliness and
perspiration, when waking at night. Scalp dry scale. Tired easily.
Sulph. 10m.
July 5 and Oct. 27, Sulph. 10m.
Dec. 9, and Jan. 18. Sulph. 50m.
April 16, 1906.
Sulph. Cm.
Record indicates improvement between these reports; steel band sensation
absent, not much pain in head; bowels orderly; heat flashes only when
tired; enjoys being out-doors. Shooting pain in hip, and r. thigh sometimes
sore to touch in bone.
One day pain and swelling in r. heel; disappeared, and appeared in r. elbow,
then in 1. elbow. Head: sensation of a million small things in scalp or in
brain in vertex; sometimes it extends to sides of head and front, or in entire
crown; > by scratching. Whirling sensation in vertex when waking from
nap, not in morning.
Less of the large spongy sensation. Tired tremor through body, extends to
vertex when worried. Soreness sensation in thorax, in walls and left
mammary region. Perspiration followed by chilliness.
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Eyes redness; sensation as if upper lid covered over the lower; sensation as
if eyes turned the wrong way; sensation of sand associated with
agglutination in morning; sensation of crack in eyes when trying to sleep.
May 25.
Jealous and suspicious; permits her thoughts and speculations to weigh her
down.
Sulph. was continued until 29th of June, 1907, used twice in mm. and twice
in 3 mm. potency, while the following symptoms were the prominent ones
reported: Head spongy sensation; heat in vertex, > by pressure; sleeps with
cold cloth on it; pain in vertex when quickly turning the head; pain in back
of neck with headache and when becomes cold. Sore spot.
Confusion and dizziness when emotions excited. < heat of sun; remains in
dark room on hot days.
Abdomen pain in region of spleen. Numbness in feet and hands when not
lying on them. Urine dark; red particles not difficult to remove from vessel.
Perspires easily, lameness or other aggravation from suppression or
cooling.
Feet hot at night. Sensation: as if nerves twisted off, while reclining; pains
in wrists when overtired; numbness in fingers. Nasal dryness; sometimes
dripping. Much sneezing. Through all the period general improvement,
gain in flesh and decrease of these symptoms.
June 29, 1907.
Urine, brick-dust sediment occasions rough surface in vessel. < from over-
eating; hiccough; cankers in mouth after eating sour food. Stomach,
burning sensation after eating strawberries.
Calc. 10m.
Mar. 5, 1908.
Cramps in calves of legs when goes from out-doors to house; sitting, or
standing, less when walking; at the worst, cramped while lying in bed by>
continued motion of turning. Head pain in vertex < pressure (?). < by
talking of others; company.
Perspiration easy, on slight exertion-between mammae and around body,
not on face. Had many small, flat warts in childhood. Must wear exactly
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same weight clothing every day or is chilly. Heat flash followed by
perspiration and then chilliness, from worry.
Heated from walking. Numb, dead sensation in hand or arm, when wakens.
Dreams all night about company. > in open air. Thighs stiff from continued
sitting.
Ferr.-Pic. 10m.
April 19.
"Last remedy did everything for her." Head -sore, sensitive spots relieved
immediately.
Ferr.-pic. 10m. May 21,
Ferr.-pic. 10m.
Aug. 31, Oct. 29, Dec. 15, Ferr-pic. 50m.
During this period, steady improvement with the chief symptoms: Fatigue
from company; head pressure of a band; pain back of eyes from extreme
heat; fullness; sensation as if would become unconscious; each side of
center of vertex.
Weeps after unpleasant events or if reprimanded or blamed. Cramps from
cold, damp weather; small twists all down calf. Wakens at night with cold
feet; at times cold to waist. Heart pain from vexation.
Feb. 18 and May 29, 1909. Lecithin 10m.
Aug. to Mar., 1910.
Stomach soreness at entrance if drinks little hot tea. Tension on waking.
Mouth-sores if eats acid. Craves water as cold as can get it. Milk must be
cold. Head sensitive on vertex, nearer front.
Phos. 10m.
May. 6.
"Head better than in years."
Phos. 10m.
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June 10 and July 30,
Phos. 50m.
Sept. 27, Phos. cm. Improvement continuing.
Nov. 7.
Abdomen soreness across it, > holding it up. < reaching; going up-stairs.
Heart sometimes darting pains. Nostrils bloody scabs.
Murex 10m.
Jan. 21, 1911. Head sensation of animals eating inside, knitting inside.
Heat, top and sides. Heavy, top and sides. < mental disturbance. Wakens
with painshooting. Sensation of band. General health better than in ten
years. > open air; motion. Heat when waking in afternoon.
Lyc. 10m.
April 5. Lyc. 10m.
Aug. 4 and Nov. 18, Lyc. 50m.
Jan. 16 and May 3, 1912. Lyc. cm.
Improvement through the two years continued with mild return of
symptoms when repetition of remedy needed.
To describe the condition of this patient in the early months, even through
the first year or two of her treatment is impossible, so to convey an
adequate idea of the disordered condition of her mind.
By the hour, she would talk on and on in a monotone, with no inflections of
voice, detailing her complaints and the annoyances of her family affairs, if
one would listen. To reason with her was an absolute impossibility: there
was no reasoning faculty apparent in her.
Then other members of the family would report the strange things she did.
By the hour they would recite her vagaries-many unthinkable things. She
said the family made her so nervous she just must go away from them.
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At the time her family and her neighbors reported how she would leave the
house immediately after an early breakfast and not return until late
afternoon, neglecting everything in the house, shirking all responsibility.
Now, two years later, at the last date on the record, not only is she filling
her place in the home as a splendid house-keeper and cook, but she is her
husband's accountant and book-keeper, attending to the details of a large
business employing dozens of men and many teams. In her husband's
absence she directs the men and keeps oversight of them and their horses
with extreme efficiency.
She is devoted to Homoeopathy, interested in its philosophy, and wonders
why others are not believers in it.
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