Chloroform liniment is also recommend as a local remedy.
ACCESSORY MEANS- The Diet is an important part of the treatment, and should be as nutritive and abundant as the condition of the digestive organs will permit. It is especially necessary that animal fats should enter largely into the diet, and any aversion from them on the part of the patient, or inability to digest them, should be overcome; well-directed efforts of this nature are nearly always successful. The particular form of fat is not important, and that variety may be adopted which can be best tolerated. Cod-liver oil, butter, cream, or even olive oil, should be used in quantities as large as the digestive organs can bear. In some way or other, fat must undoubtedly be applied to the nutrition of the nervous system if it is to be maintained in its organic integrity, since fat is one of the most important, if not the most important, of its organic ingredient. To Dr. Radcliffe belongs the merit of having been chiefly instrumental in bringing forward this therapeutical fact in this country, and it is one which I have had repeated occasions to verify. It is a very singular circumstance, also pointed out by Dr. Radcliffe, that neuralgic patients have, with rare exceptions, a dislike to fatty foods of all kinds, and systematically neglect its use. And it has several times occurred to me to see patients entirely lose neuralgic pains, which had troubled them for a considerable time, after the adoption of a simple alteration in their diet, by which the proportion of fatty ingredients in it was considerable increased (Dr. F. E. Anstie). The Author has repeatedly found the administration of Pulsatilla helpful in removing the objection to fatty kinds of foods.
Protection from cold is another important element in the treatment. Exposure to a cold, damp atmosphere, with sufficient clothing, often acts as an exciting cause of Neuralgia, and should be avoided, as every recurrence of the disease tends to develop the constitutional cachexia, and to strengthen its hold on the system. Warm clothing, including flannel, is a great protection from atmospheric changes, and should be adopted by all neuralgic patients. Bathing, including salt-water baths, sponging followed by friction, or the manipulations of a clever masseur; moderate and regular out-of-door exercise sufficient to favour nutrition without causing fatigue. A change of air, and sometimes entire change of habits, are necessary to insure a cure. Lastly, Rest is an important item in the cure of Neuralgia, especially in the case of hard-working and overtaxed patients.
95. Nervous Sick-Headache.
DEFINITION- An affection marked by Headache, dislike for, or indifference to, food, and frequently nausea and vomiting; due to cerebral exhaustion or idiosyncrasy, rather than stomachic disorder.
The derangement referred to in this Section is not simply that described as a bilious attack, or the Headache following a too heavy dinner, or the taking too much wine or spirits; for this may occur in any person from such indulgences; nor that resulting from the ingestion of some special article of diet which only disagrees with particular persons; but to Headache from nervous cases.
SYMPTOMS- They usually commence on rising in the morning, the patient being pale, dark around the eyes, with contracted pupils, and looking and feeling extremely ill. Giddiness, swimming in the head, throbbing of the temples, and stupefying or agonizing, deeply seated Headache, often limited to one spot on the side of the head, on the forehead, or over the eyes, and increased by movement, noise, strong light, and any kind of mental perturbation. The gastric symptoms clammy mouth, anorexia, nausea and vomiting, or more generally retching are secondary rather than primary, having no necessary connection with any impropriety of diet.
SICK-HEADACHE AND OTHER DISORDERS- It is most important to distinguish this affection from those acute diseases of which it is an inceptive or accompanying symptom, as Scarlatina, Typhus, Albuminuria, Inflammation of the Brain, Apoplexy, ( A few hours before writing this article the Author was hurriedly summoned to a case to Congestive Apoplexy, of which severe Hemicrania, and vomiting of greenish matter, had been the chief symptoms. On arriving at the house the patient was dead, and although the Headache and vomiting had persisted, with some intermissions, for several days, the case had been regarded and treated as an ordinary bilious Headache, from nervous depression. etc.
CAUSES- Predisposing- A peculiar nervous temperament, which is often hereditary and runs in families. The real cause, therefore, lies deep in the patient’s idiosyncrasy, and may be developed in numerous and widely different ways. The excessive use of tea or coffee is also in some cases a predisposing cause, also un- healthy occupations, sewage-gases, malaria, the employment of arsenic in wall-papers, or in articles of dress, reflex Neuralgia, from dental or other causes, a sedentary monotonous life, with the use of alcoholic beverages, and probably other varying causes. Exciting. Whatever produces a powerful impression on the nervous system of a person thus predisposed may develop an attack, as fright, loud noise, exposure to a hot sun, a strong wind, or extremes of temperature. Moreover mental or bodily fatigue, worry, the pressure of business or family anxieties, deprivation of sleep or of food, prolonged nursing, and other causes of nervous exhaustion, are invariably succeeded by nervous, or, as it may be termed, asthenic headache. True Sick- headache, then, may occur in the most abstemious persons, and is not at all necessarily connected with a disordered digestive apparatus.
EPITOME OF TREATMENT-
1. FOR THE ACUTE ATTACKS- NUX V. (congestive Headache with giddiness, Constipation, etc.); Belladonna (with flushed face, heat of eyes, which also feel too large; Bryonia (with vomiting of bitter fluids); Gloninum (throbbing and especially bursting Headache); Cocc. (Sick-headache with much retching and but little except water or mucus vomited); Ver-Alb. (Sick-headache, with prostration, cold sweats, etc.); Coffea (nervous Headache with sleeplessness); Cimic. (nervous hysterical Headache of women, especially at the monthly period, to consequent on its derangement or cessation); Aconite (Headache from Catarrh, with general deranged circulation); Iris (copious vomiting, the ejected matter containing bile).
2. CHRONIC CASES AND BETWEEN THE ATTACKS- Sulph., Natrum muriaticum, Sepia, Cal-C., Arsenicum, Nux vomica, Sulphur, Quin., Zincum met. (with general nervous depression). Sanguin., Kal-Bich., Kal-Carb.
ACCESSORY MEANS- The patient should lie down in a quiet room with a subdued light, and be kept from every kind of disturbances, so that, if possible, sleep may afford relief. Rest and sleep are the most natural restorers. Hot tea or coffee, which act on the nervous system, often give considerable immediate relief, although the excessive use of these beverages predisposes to subsequent attacks. If pressure relieve, the wet bandage should be tightly bound round the head. Dr. Wilks, who was a martyr to Sick-headache all his life, says this is the only means of procuring relief on which reliance can be placed. This method, he thinks, is instinctive as it is universal, and has been used in all times. He quotes Shakespeare, who often illustrates the morbid state of the body as well as the passions of the mind, and who testifies to the ancient practice here recommended. In the scene between Hubert and Arthur in King John, Arthur, when petitioning for the preservation of his eyes, says-
When your head did but ache, I knit my handkerchief about your brows.
And in Othello we have not only the remedy for Headache given, but the cause. The former was the handkerchief about which the chief interest of the play is centered-
DESDEMONA.- Why do you speak so faintly? Are you not well? OTHELLO. I have a pain upon my forehead here.
DESDEMONA. Faith, that’s with watching; twill away again.
Let me bind it hard, within this hour It will be well.
During an attack, unless it is prolonged, entire abstinence from food is necessary; at least only the slightest nourishment milk- and-lime-water, plain soup, etc. should be given; copious draughts of hot water taken early often mitigate or shorten an attack.
PREVENTIVE TREATMENT- The causes which predispose to or excite the paroxysm must be avoided, and the tone of the general health improved. For this the knowledge and tact of the physician are necessary, for every case must be treated according to its individual peculiarities. Tea and coffee, although they sometimes give relief during a paroxysm, render the nervous system increasingly susceptible to the attacks, and we have known several patients enjoy complete immunity from the attacks by abandoning these beverages. The general regulation of the diet, the adoption of out-of-door recreation, and the general hygienic measures pointed out in the first chapter of this work, will prevent or minimize the affection. In some, when attacks frequently occur, change of occupation, scene, and climate are necessary to break up the tendency. The climate selected should be dry and bracing, and walking or horse exercise taken daily.
LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS; LICENTIATE IN MIDWIFERY, LONDON AND EDINBURGH, ETC. PHYSICIAN TO THE READING AND BERKSHIRE HOMOEOPATHIC DISPENSARY.
Author of "The Stepping Stone to Homeopathy and Health,"
"Manual of Homoeopathic Treatment". Editor of "The Homoeopathic World."