Colocynth. [Coloc]
This remedy is specific in colic in gouty and rheumatic subjects, when the well-known griping pains forcing the patient to bend double or press something hard into the abdomen are present. It is a colic caused by flatus, undigested food or cold, or perhaps some violent emotion such as a fit of anger There may be present diarrhoea, and the griping is with and preceding the same and emission of flatus or stool will relieve the colic. It is also a most useful remedy in menstrual or vesical colic, but in all the forms of colic to which **Colocynth is applicable it is necessary that the nervous element predominate over the inflammatory. Indeed, it is of little use in inflammatory colic.
**Aconite. Inflammatory colic forcing patient to bend double, but no relief therefrom, it is only in the nervous form that pressure relieves.
**Veratrum album. Pains forcing patient to bend double, must walk about for relief, cold sweat. Painful distention of the abdomen and constipation. Flatulent eructation and sickness of the stomach.
**Magnesia carbonica. Griping, colicky pain, doubling patient up, but accompanied with green, slimy stools, after eating fruit or vegetables.
**Causticum. Sometimes of use after **Colocynth fails.
Dioscorea. [Dios]
Pain about umbilical region, continuous and constant, and associated with paroxysms of great intensity, flatulent spasms, so-called, relieved by stretching the body out rather than by bending double. Bilious, rheumatic and neuralgic colics. Pains radiate to chest and back; it is a most valuable remedy in certain forms of dyspepsia which are marked with much colicky pain. **Dioscorea is most useful in painful enteralgias which are relieved by bending backwards. The Eclectic School uses this remedy for gall stones, claiming that it is almost specific. It is usually given in doses of 20 to 40 drops in 4 ounces of water, a teaspoonful every 30 minutes to two hours. It seems to relax the circular muscular fibres of the duct.
Nux vomica. [Nux-v]
Haemorrhoidal colic or colic from accumulation of flatus, pressing up and down; spasmodic colic from flatulence. Deep seated hypogastric pain, abdomen hard and drawn in, not distended. Colic from dietetic errors or in brandy or coffee drinkers; pains worse on motion, pains pinching and contractive, griping as if intestines were rubbed between stones.
**Pulsatilla. Colic with chilliness from pastry or rich food, loud rumbling and gurgling in abdomen. Flatulent colic of hysterical females and colics of pregnant women, accompanied with a frequent desire to urinate.
Chamomilla. [Cham]
Suits especially colic in women and children. Colic with hot cheeks, red face and perspiration preceding an attack of intestinal catarrh. Colic form anger, worse from warmth, flatulent colic. There is atony of the digestive apparatus and digestion is at a standstill; the neuralgia is peripheral and the abdomen distended like a drum. It seems as if places in the abdomen would break through.
**Staphisagria. Colic from anger or following abdominal operations.
**Belladonna. Colic of infants is well met by **Belladonna. The child bends backwards and screams, and the transverse colon protrudes like a pad. There is congestion of the intestines. It is rather an enteritis than an enteralgia.
Ipecac. [Ip]
Griping colic like a hand clutching the intestines, cutting pains shooting across abdomen from left to right, after acid or unripe fruit. The colic is worse by motion and better during rest.
Cocculus. [Cocc]
Nervous colic, worse at night, accompanied by flatulence, but discharge of flatus gives no relief, as more is constantly formed. Same pain in right hypochondrium, worse bending forward. Constipation is an accompaniment. Menstrual colic, pain in lower part of abdomen with a disposition to relapses. Hysterical colic.
**Ignatia. Attacks of colic in hysterical people, waking them out of sleep; colic from grief.
Plumbum. [Plb]
Abdominal pain radiating in all directions, walls drawn in; this, however, is not essentially a nervous colic. There are cramps in the legs and obstinate constipation accompanies, but not flatulence. The abdomen is as hard as a stone, sensation as if the abdominal wall were drawn to back by string, better from rubbing and hard pressure. Lead produces one of the most violent colics of any drug and this colic is sometimes difficult to cure.
**Opium. Almost specific for lead colic.
Other remedies in lead colic, are **Belladonna, Alumina, Alum, Platina and Nux.
Cuprum. [Cupr]
Inflammatory colic, abdomen hard; violent spasms of colic as if a knife were thrust into abdomen. Greatly aggravated by drinking cold water. The pains are violent, intermitting with great uneasiness and screaming.
**Cuprum arsenicosum is a valuable remedy for violent enteralgias.
**Stannum. Colic in young children relieved by pressure.
Professor of Materia Medica in the University of Michigan Homeopathic Medical College. Member of American Institute of Homeopathy. In addition to his editoral work he authored or collaborated on: Boericke and Dewey's Twelve Tissue Remedies, Essentials of Homeopathic Materia Medica, Essentials of Homeopathic Therapeutics and Practical Homeopathic Therapeutics.