Arsenicum. Headache in occiput; tearing.
Arum Italicum.- Damp weather causes persistent headache, worse at the occiput.
Arum Triphyllum. Shooting pain in occiput when turning eyes upwards in morning.
Asafoetida. Aching in occiput, gradually extending over the head as if the brain was compressed by a cloth thrown over it. Drawing. Pressure.
Asarum Europoeum. Feels arteries in occiput, then all over. Tension of whole scalp.
Asclepias Tuberosa. Headache presses deeply upon base of brain and is like that Ipecac.
Asterias Rubens. Pains more severe at back of head than at the forehead. Dull occipital headache, comes and goes suddenly.
The Asterias-headache is congestive and neuralgic.
Aurum. Fine tearing from the right side of occiput through the brain to the forehead; worse during motion.
Aurum. Mur.Natronatum. Heaviness and heat in occiput. Boring in left side of Occiput. Drawing in bones.
Aurum Sulphuratum. Lancination in occiput.
The prover of Aurum Met., who furnishes the pains in the limbs, back and joints and even in the teeth, (above-confirmed symptoms). describes similar tearing with swollen gums. It is a fair inference that the tearing is periosteal.
Baptisia. Dull feeling, especially in the occiput, where there is slight pain and fullness. Dull pressure.
Baryta Acetica.- Pressing-asunder stitch, traverses left side of occiput, ends in the cervical vertebrae. Heavy sensation in whole occiput, (<) close to neck, with tension in same, not (<) motion. Sudden sensation of drawing from the occiput over the right ear and lower jaw. Dull pressive pain in occipital bone, from cervical vertebre behind right ear, obliquely to parietal bone.
Baryta Carbonica. Rheumatic pains in occiput; cervical and occipital glands swollen. Throbbing, extending to frontal eminence.
Baryta Sulphurica- Throbbing in the occiput or in whole head.
Baryta irritates the nerves slightly, and then causes muscular weakness, paresis and even Paralysis. It is useful in Neuralgia and in Rheumatism from exposure, especially to damp. The CARBONATE cure s, particularly when stiff-neck, rheumatic pains and swollen glands obtain. The Acetica deserves a trial for its well-defined pains. Accompaniments may be, in either remedy, tension of the face as from cobwebs, general tenseness of skin, which is as dry as parchment. Scrofulous persons, who take cold very easily, have large, hard abdomens, and mentally are dejected, irresolute, slow in comprehension. Also in old, infirm, persons, whose blood vessels are undergoing senile changes, who are threatened with Apoplexy and who readily catch cold on the least exposure.
Belladonna.- Jerking headache, worse when walking quickly or going upstairs, and when at every step there is a jolt downwards as if a weight were in the occiput. Throbbing pressure, left side of occiput. Cutting in head to left occipital protuberance. Severe, rapid stabs in occiput behind. Sensation of weight, with violent pressing in the occiput. Head drawn backward and bored deeply into pillows.
The occiput may participate in the general congestive and inflammatory action of this remedy, and in some cases, may be the chief point of attack. Then the patient cannot lie down on the back or incline the head backwards. Inflammation at the base of the brain causes boring in the pillow, and if this extends into the spine; also opisthotonos.
Benzinum. – Severe darting in occiput from below upwards, recurring in paroxysms, (<) from motion, and especially rising after sitting.
Berberis. Pressive, tearing pain in occiput, as if scalp was too small and brain too large. Tearing in left side of neck and posteriorly in slow jerks upwards to occiput.
These are the well-known pains of Berberis, and indicate the remedy in Neuralgia of neck and occiput, especially if the patient is weak from defective assimilation and tissue- oxidation, the urine depositing a copious foamy sediment.
Bismuthum Oxidum. Dull cutting in brain, begins above the right orbit and extends to the occiput. Pressure and sensation of heaviness, (<) on motion. Twitching, tearing whole left side of occipital bone, (<) close to parietal.
This Oxide, which however, is probably the subnitrate, is of eminent service in pains of head, eyes, and spine, when reflex from gastric origin. The tongue is white, the taste bitter and there are nausea, burning, pressure and distress in stomach through to the back, with a sore, burning spot in the spine. Prostration is excessive, while the face is often indicative of poor nutrition and of abdominal distress; earthy face, blue, rings around the eyes, features changed, as if, he had been sick. Trousseau used the drug for eructations non-foetid, diarrhoea worse when child is weaned, also when continuing after dentition; stools cadaverous; excessive exhaustion, but surface remains warm.
Borax. Throbbing in occiput, as if, it would suppurate, shivering all over, Pulsating rush of blood into occiput.
Bovista.- After walking in open air violent Pressive headache, heavy feeling, (<) occiput, (>) night and in room. Confusion and heaviness, lids inclined to fall, eyes feel, as if, they would be drawn backwards, especially in a bright light in evening; anxiety and uneasiness of body. Dull pain with tension in temples. Pressive pain, extending over vertex to forehead. Feeling in occiput, as if, everything would protrude. As if, a wedge was being pressed in occiput. Violent sticking and tearing in left side of occiput. Dull boring; pressive stitches in occiput to forehead and over left eye, in warm room. Tearing in occiput and in lower jaw. Violent fine stitches in left side of occiput.
Bovista affects the brain so as to cause anaesthesia and symptoms of asphyxia. It has therefore, been used for the ill- effects of the fumes of burning charcoal. It should be thought of in occipital headaches of weak persons, who have cerebral hyperaemia, tendency to ptosis, drowsiness, etc. A sense, as if, the head were enormously large is an excellent characteristic. The drug here resembles Gelsemium. In a clear case, however, the Bovista cutaneous symptoms will be present.
Bromine. Heat in occiput. Towards evening, in rather damp weather. Pains in bones of head, mostly in forehead and occiput.
Bone-pains are less characteristic of Bromium than are congestion to chest and head, Croup, Pneumonia, etc., They come usually after these other symptoms. As they were rather worse in damp weather, and as we know clinically that Bromine has aggravation from dampness, etc, we may essay the remedy in rheumatic, scrofulous patients with pains in occipital bones, etc. Compare Baryta, Aurum, Dulc, Mercurius
Bryonia.- Awoke with headache, (<) over left eye, after rising, pain extended towards vertex and occiput, and there disappeared. Slight headache left side of forehead and occiput, with slight tension below mastoid. Drawing, distending headache, left half of forehead and occiput while walking. Slight drawing in forehead and pressure in occiput. Pressive pain above left eye, followed by dull pressive pain in occipital protuberances, whence it spreaded over the whole body; pain so severe on quick motion and after eating that it seemed like a distinct pulsation within the head. Hollow throbbing in forehead and occiput. Pressing together in temporal muscles alternating frequently with drawing pains in occipital protuberances. Sensible beating in vertex with same and fullness within cranium in region of cerebellum. Numb sensation, occiput feels enlarged. Dull pain. Headache in occiput to shoulders, like heaviness on sore, spot, morning in bed after walking, while lying on back. Painfulness in lower portion of left side of occiput, (<) by touch. Dull pressure, Pressive pain with drawing down into neck, (>) towards noon. Sharp pain in left occipital protuberance, coming and going suddenly.
The direction of pains, from before backwards, is very characteristic of the Bryonia-headache. Few drugs act so prominently as this upon the occiput. Its symptoms, some of which have been confirmed, show it to be useful in gastric, bilious, congestive, neuralgic and rheumatic occipital headaches. In rheumatic cases, stiff-neck is a common accompaniment. Although in Typhoid Bryonia has generally been given in frontal headache, its occipital pains must not be neglected. Compare here, however, Rhus Rad. (q.v.).
Bufo.- Hammering from eye-brow to cerebellum. Lancinations in cerebellum, making head fall backwards; loss of consciousness, fall down, tonic and clonic spasms, face turgid and distorted, bloody saliva, involuntary urine, repeated shocks through body, legs in more violent motion than arms, face bathed in sweat. Pains in head make nape of neck feel, as if, compressed.
Some of these indications are doubtful because derived from the experiments of Houat, but we know enough of Bufo to be certain that it affects the region we are investigating. It should be remembered in epileptics who suffer from occipital compression and stiff-neck before paroxysms.
