Thu, 19 Mar 2009
Count on the Count
It's been a long time since I've posted on homeopathy, but lately I've I've gotten interested in the Boenninghausen method of repertorization again, so I thought I'd write something about it. Kent's method focuses on keynote symptoms and generals. It works well a lot of the time, but there's an element of guess work in it. Boenninghasen's method is more clear cut, but unfortunately it's often difficult to get the sick person to tell you the symptoms you need to make it work. So your case taking skills need to be good to get the sick person to think in a way they're not inclined to think, that is, homeopathically. In all homeopathic case taking the modalities (what makes a symptom better or worse) are important, but especially so in the Boenninghausen method, where you want a complete symptom to repertorize. A complete symptom is qualified by a clear sensation and modality. Unfortunately, usually the interview goes like this:
I've got a cough. — What's it like?
It's a bad cough. — Is it wet or dry?
A little of both. — What makes it better?
When I take cough medicine.
Thirty minutes of a case like this and you want to throw all your homeopathic books in the trash and devote yourself to a simpler hobby. Sometimes you get a decent case, though, and can use your repertorization skills. Karl Robinson has written a good article on the Boenninghausen method and I have notes from Doctor Luc's seminar at the NCH Summer School. Here's an extract from my notes that gives the gist of the method:
When repertorizing the chief complaint comes first. In other methods of case analysis, you don't use the chief complaint. If there is more than one complaint, ask which is worst. The modalities of the chief complaint are the most important. It is such a decisive factor that if you have a remedy with the concomitants, sensations, and dreams of the patient but not the modality, you must reject it. A remedy the ranks very high in the modalities is the one you choose. If there is a recognizable never well since or etiology it comes first among the modalities. Concomitant symptoms are symptoms that go together with the chief complaint. The less often it typically goes with the complaint, the more important it is. For example, diarrhea with headache is a concomitant. The concomitant also has modalities. For example, asthma with increased urination. If there is an aggravation of the concomitant that is the same as of the chief complaint, it has increased value. For example, eczema on the head and white stools where both are aggravated by milk.
I offer this in the hope that patients may speak their symptoms clearly, doctors may find the similimum easily, and cure the patient speedily. In other words, in hope of a perfect world.
