Bromide of potassium.
Introduction
“BROMIDES”–practically always “Pot. brom.”, that powerful inhibitor, that grand suppresser, in almost universal use for the treatment of epilepsy, sleeplessness, “nerves”, and yet which, as commonly administered, has never cured the chronic conditions for which it is prescribed, and never can.
How do we know this? Simply by the fact that the dose has to be always increased, as through the months or years the patient gradually asserts himself, and gets the better of the drug. You see there are two ways of prescribing. You may give a drug in order to do something to a patient, to “depress his nervous system and more or less paralyse the higher functions of his brain”; but this does not recommend itself as an ideal form of treatment to the homoeopath, whose concern is, always, the vital stimulation of the patient, according to definite laws, whereby he is roused to cure himself. Drugs do not cure, popular opinion notwithstanding. Cure must come form within; or there is no cure.
We will detail, presently, the joys, mental and physical, of the condition termed Bromism, from the pen of one of the best known teachers of Old School medicine in his textbook for the use of students. No wonder that one of them, years ago, preparing for her “finals” exclaimed, “Medicine is all pop. I shall never give medicine to my patients!” We will also give extracts from the poisoning of men and animals by Potassium bromide; our authority being the Cyclopaedia of Drug Pathogenesy. We will also see how Homoeopathy applies the drug, in non-poisonous but gently stimulating doses, to elevate and rouse latent qualities, inhibited by disease, and to relieve the sufferings of those whose health, or rather ill-health-picture resembles, but is not caused by, Bromide of potassium.
Personally, looking back, one has seldom, if ever, used this drug, or had occasion to use it. For “nerves” and sleeplessness, we have so many rapidly curative remedies which, given in regard to cause, and exact symptoms, act like a charm; no need to “push” the remedy, or increase the dose. Take sleeplessness–caused, say, by over-exertion and extreme weariness of mind or body. Here Arnica never fails to summon “Tired nature’s sweet restorer, balmy sleep”. In sleeplessness from anxiety, restlessness, anguish, fear; when man, woman, or child tosses feverishly, in despair of ever getting off to sleep, Aconite is simply scientific magic; since it is Aconite that has thus tormented its provers, who, long ago, suffered for us, that we might cease to so suffer. Or, again, in the case of an elderly woman with a huge goitre–once,–who in one of the air raids of the last War was pinned down under a beam, while her house was burning over her head. (Some of the doctors who come to see what we are doing with our out-patients, know her.) When raids began again, last September, was it? she turned up with the tale, “I cannot sleep! I keep listening for them!” and for this she, if anyone, had ample excuse. A dose or two of Arsenicum put her right; and her next report was “Sleeping well”, and SHE HAD “LOST HER FEAR”. Who would, for this, substitute the stupefied sleep of bromide, which for a few hours would have made her unconscious of her terrors, but would have needed constant repetition, and would never, like Arsenicum, have simply, promptly, and entirely charmed them away. One sees her from time to time, and knows that during all these months of war, with houses falling around her, the healthy reaction from those few globules of milk-sugar, medicated with Arsenicum in potency, has sufficed to overcome even such great terror. With Hahnemann, one can only give thanks for “God’s good gift, Homoeopathy”, where it is no question of a few hours’ inhibition and suppression, but of the one, most precious remedy that, causing a certain terror in those who are out to test its properties, can cure the same, when otherwise caused.
By the way, though the striking suppressions of Pot. brom. have never appealed to us, and we have never been tempted to shepherd our patients along that broad and easy path that can lead to a destruction of mind and body, yet, our drug picture of January last dealt with potentized Bromium the element, which, as we showed, was used to cure in the small doses of homoeopathic preparation, the asthma of a sailor whose life was only tolerable when at sea. That is one of the precious tips of our school. It appears in the Repertory as, “Asthma of sailors as soon as they go ashore, BROM.”, the only drug given, and in black type. Any way it works; and is, therefore, worth knowing, if only needed once in a medical life-time. We have also cured quite a number of cases of epilepsy, each with the special remedy demanded by the symptoms of the individual, and never by the remedy of the disease-name. One has also failed to cure–they are difficult cases, and this is the narrow way of those who seek to enter into life, and who regardless of difficulties and labour, and the necessity to use queer freaks of intuition and knowledge, aim sincerely at doing things that matter. There is no great merit in changing a beautiful and intelligent child into a “pimply idiot,”–even if, by doing so, the actual number of fits can be somewhat reduced. “Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp or what’s a heaven for?”
The price that may have to be paid, for a mere disease, not cure, of epileptic fits, or for such sleep as bromides can offer, is, in our thinking, not worth having. Sedative drugs may be used with impunity, even with advantage, to tide over a difficult crisis; but in chronic work–No!
Distrust any “cure” which never cures; which can never be dispensed with, but which forms a habit, and in order to maintain a seeming alleviation must be ever increased. Such a drug can never cure–such cases!
And yet, all these powerful drugs CAN be used to cure where prescribed for the symptoms they evoke: Such conditions as skin diseases, like those–five in number, we are told, that bromides can cause; states of unconsciousness with bromide symptoms. Here, in the small and careful dosage of Homoeopathy, they may prove curative, provided that the condition–? cerebral haemorrhage etc., has not gone too far; for there are things that are incurable.
HALE WHITE, Materia medica of Pharmacy, Pharmacology and Therapeutica: (We will quote what Old School has to say in regard to this drug, so often abused by the profession and by the laity.)
“Bromides are powerful depressants to the nervous system. In man at least, not only is the cortical area, but the brain as a whole is depressed, therefore these drugs are powerful HYPNOTICS the bromides are well worthy to be called powerful nerve depressants. Circulation.–Large doses exert a direct paralysing influence on the heart, lessening the force and frequency of the beat and producing stoppage in diastole.
“If bromides are taken for too long a period, a series of symptoms of poisoning, to which the name of BROMISM has been given may appear. The earliest of them is a rash, consisting of red papules, chiefly on face and back, exactly resembling some forms of acne. Next symptoms are general lowering of cutaneous sensibility, and also that of the pharynx; then there is a diminution of sexual power; the patient becomes low-spirited, easily fatigued, unfit for work and his intellect is dulled, Potassium bromide in man, at least, the higher functions of the brain are depressed before the lower, and these again before the spinal. Thus the depression takes place in regular order from above downwards. In the reverse order of the physiological development of the function, and this is commonly the case with many drugs.
“Those who take bromides habitually find themselves unable to sleep without them. These bad effects are intensified by the fact that gradually larger doses are required to produce sleep, and thus the unfortunate sufferer becomes more and more a slave to the drug. They are the most valuable drugs we have for the treatment of epilepsy. They rarely cure, but often greatly diminish the number of fits. It is impossible to say of any given case, whether bromides will do good, therefore they must be tried in all insomnia of overwork, worry” And so on.
“Among the symptoms caused by the drug are some which have escaped the notice of previous observers, but which if not recognized, might lead to serious mistakes in diagnosis. I refer to cerebrospinal affections–characterized by general delirium, hallucinations, fancies about being persecuted, violent actions, ataxia of the limbs and of the tongue, and impeded articulation- which might be taken as indications of general paralysis. All these alarming symptoms disappear on leaving off the medicine.”– ALLEN’S Encyclopaedia.
In The Cyclopoedia of Drug Pathogenesy we find:
A prover, after large crude doses of 1 oz. repeated in half an hour, found speech difficult painful sadness and indifference, almost disgust at life. Attempting to walk he experienced a strange vertigo: a sense of emptiness around and under his feet, which he was afraid of placing wrongly; the ground seemed at fault, the sense of resistance lost, his walk was staggering, and he was obliged to give it up. A profound obtuseness of sensibility, especially in regard to reflex actions. Tickling, pinching did not provoke their usual effects; sense of touch was altered, so that there was inability to grasp with firmness. Pulse slower and compressible as if extinguished.
