**Paullinia is also a useful remedy in sick headaches involving the whole head, with nausea, even vomiting.
**Chionanthus. Sick headache, pain in forehead over eyes, eyeballs painful, vomiting of bitter, green-looking matter, pain in liver and cramps in abdomen. It will frequently cure habitual headaches.
Gelsemium. [Gels]
**Gelsemium is another remedy which has a headache commencing with blindness, and especially is it a remedy for headaches due to eye strain. **Onosmodium is another; here we have dull aching extending down back of neck or over on one side, generally the left; there is a strained stiff sensation in the corresponding eye. The ache under **Gelsemium commences in the occiput or nape of the neck, comes up over the head settles in the eye as in **Sanguinaria. There is a feeling as if a band were about the head, the patient is dull and apathetic, and there is great soreness in the eye when moving them. Occipital headaches, which are dull and dragging, often find their remedy in **Gelsemium. Cocculus is another remedy for these conditions. Dr. Henser, in the Allgemeine Homoeopatische Zeitung, December, 1887, recommends **Gelsemium 30 in nervous headaches, saying that three doses will usually relieve.
Remember the copious urination which relieves the headache, and that the headaches are accompanied with visual troubles, such as double vision, squinting and dim sight, and **Gelsemium will be easily recognized. **Gelsemium headaches are also relieved by sleep, and dizziness may accompany.
A characteristic of **Gelsemium is a sensation of a band around the head just above the ears. It also suits “tobacco headaches.”
**Kali bichromicum has a headache commencing with blindness; the pain settles in a small spot, is very intense, then the blindness disappears.
Cocculus. [Cocc]
Another remedy for occipital headache is **Cocculus, and it is a most excellent one; the symptoms are these: the ache occurs in the lower part of the occiput and extends to the nape, and it is intense and nearly always associated with vertigo there is constant nausea. Among the causes of headache calling for **Cocculus may be mentioned riding in the cars and a carriage. A peculiar symptom of **Cocculus is the sensation as if the occiput were opening and shutting. This is also one of the most characteristic symptoms of **Cannabis; Another is a tendency to constant headache, it has also pain in left orbit and frontal protuberance. The headache of Cocculus in general are worse from mental effort, and are better indoors and during rest, and there is a constant tendency to stretch the head backwards.
Spigelia. [Spig]
This remedy holds about the same relation to the left side of the head that **Sanguinaria does to the right side. The pains are neuralgic in character, settle over the left eye, and they are apt to follow the course of the sun, beginning in the morning, reaching the acme at noon and subsiding at sunset. There is often a sensation as if the head were open along the vertex. Noises and jarring of the bed, as under **Belladonna, aggravate the pain; stooping and change of weather also make the pain worse. The pure neuralgic character of the pain, and its left side preference, should lead to the remedy.
Cimicifuga. [Cimic]
This is another remedy for the neuralgic form of headache, and it has some valuable symptoms. It corresponds to headache of students and those exhausted by fatigue. There is first a sensation as if the top of the head would fly off. There are sharp, lancinating pains in and over the eyes, shooting to the top of the head. The brain seems to move in waves, and there may be the symptoms of a sharp pain extending from the occiput to the frontal region, as if a bolt were driven through the head. Headaches which are reflex or dependent on some uterine irritation are met by this remedy. When there is a feeling as if the patient would go crazy it is especially indicated. Many of the pains begin in the occiput and shoot down the spine; there is a tendency to bend the head forward, which relieves somewhat.
**Sepia. Migraine, which has existed for years in women with profuse leucorrhoea is often cured by **Sepia. It corresponds to the left eye and the left temple and the pain extends backward.
Silicea. [Sil]
**Silicea is a very useful remedy in headache, but one not very often used. When a patient with a headache has her head tied up with a towel or handkerchief it will probably indicate one of two remedies.
**Argentum nitricum if the head be tied up tightly; here we have relief from pressure; and **Silicea if the head is tied up simply to keep it warm. The headache of **Silicea nervous and caused by excessive mental exertion. The face is pale at the commencement of the headache, but gets flushed as the pain becomes intense; body is chilly. It is supra- orbital and worse over the right eye, the pains coming up from the back of the head. Noise, motion and jarring aggravate. Warmth relieves.
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.