*** PSORA has numerous sensations of vertigo. These are of many kinds and accompany all kinds of motion, and are often induced or aggravated by emotional disturbances. Hahnemann speaks of the vertigos of psora as being many and peculiar, brought on by walking, motion, looking up quickly, rising from sitting or lying; bilious vertigo, floating, from digestive disturbances, with specks before the eyes; desire to keep quiet by lying down, which better. In this desire to lie down and better by lying down we have the outstanding characteristic of the whole underlying condition.
There are sharp, severe, paroxysmal headaches which come on in the morning, increase as the sun rises and better when the sun goes down. These are usually frontal, temporal or parietal. The headaches with red face, throbbing, better by rest, quiet and sleep and better by hot applications are psoric.
The bilious nausea and vomiting, coming on at regular intervals, better from rest, quiet and sleep, are psoric.
The characteristic desire to lie down and be quiet is manifest in feverish children, who desire only to be let alone.
Psoric manifestations may be a link in almost all disease conditions, and they are always better by heat.
Psora alone never causes structural changes, and the psoric head is normal in size and contour. The hair and scalp are dry, rarely perspiring; the hair is lustreless and so dry that it cannot be combed without wetting the comb. The hair falls out after an illness. It becomes grey too early, or white in spots; it breaks and the ends split. The skin and scalp appear unclean, and there is much itching dandruff and dry eruptions on the scalp, either papular or eczematous, which itch. These eruptions are worse in the open air, worse evenings, better by scratching, but burning and smarting follow the scratching. These eruptions do not suppurate but dry down and become dead scales.
There are many eye symptoms, but since there are no structural changes under this uncomplicated stigma, we find no pathological changes. The symptoms all have to do with the functional relationships and are closely related to emotional disturbances. The psoric eye is intolerant of daylight or sunlight, and the symptoms are worse in the morning, from the rising of the sun to the zenith, and better by heat. There are spots before the eyes; this is a characteristic manifestation of this miasm, or stigma.
Ptosis of the lids is never psoric, but syphilitic. Red lids are a combination of the psoric and syphilitic in the tubercular diathesis.
The ear troubles, like the eye troubles, are functional or nervous. The appearance of the ear is normal; the ear is small or medium in size, and never transparent in appearance. There is no moisture in or about the ear, as with the other miasms. The auditory canal is dry and scaly. We rarely find an abscessed condition in the psoric ear. Since this stigma has such marked nervous reflexes, we expect to find the characteristic oversensitiveness to sounds.
The shape of the psoric face is that of an inverted pyramid, but the face and head do not perspire as does the syphilitic condition. Perspiration is characteristic also of the tubercular diathesis, but this is because of the syphilitic admixture with the psoric. The lips are red, often red to bluish, parched and dry. The usual feverish face in the psoric patient is red and hot and shining. There are the characteristic dry itching pimples and simple acne. The skin is naturally dry, with an unwashed appearance. Rushes of blood to the face or burning of hands or feet are psoric, as are hot flushes the climacteric.
In the nose also we find the oversensitiveness to odours; unusual odours awaken him from sleep; he cannot sleep where there are strong odours; perfumes make him feel ill and faint. There are painful boils or pimples on the septum, but on malignant manifestations.
Lupus of the nose is a manifestation of the combined stigmata, and closely allied to tuberculosis.
Sordes about the mouth are psoric manifestations. There is swelling and burning about the lips rather than fissures. There is thrush and stomatitis in the mouth. The psoric patient has many taste perversions; there is a bad taste in the mouth; or it may be sweet, bitter or sour; there is a regurgitation of the taste of foods; these patients are very sensitive to taste. While all the miasms, or stigmata, have many perversions of taste, psora is the only one which manifests the symptom of burnt taste.
Psora is always hungry; this miasm has desires and longings for many and various things. They are hungry even with the stomach full; they are never satisfied even while eating. They crave sweets, acids, sour things; in fevers they crave indigestible things. They long for travel, yet they are weak and debilitated; they long for things the system is wanting; they long for certain things, but when the want is gratified they do not want them. During pregnancy they long for peculiar things; yet after gestation they loath the things they have craved. Before bilious attacks they crave sweets, but the attack is not caused by the sweets they consume; rather the craving is a forerunner of the attack, a prodromal symptom.
There is a weak, gone feeling in the stomach in the middle of the forenoon; hunger at night also is a prominent symptom. These patients lack the power of assimilation, which is undoubtedly the cause of the continual craving, and is closely related to the characteristic gnawing in the stomach with sensations of heat and cold. There is a repugnance to boiled foods; they crave fried and highly seasoned foods, meats and greasy foods, but these do not suit. Meats stimulate the psoric patient and arouse the underlying condition to activity. In fevers they have an aversion to sweets and crave acids. The sense of fullness, gas, bloating, etc., are markedly psoric traits, and they are accompanied by heartburn and waterbrash. Most of the aggravations of psora occur after eating.
The cravings and longings are basic phenomena of great therapeutic value. A comparison of the desires of the stigmatic influences is of much help in selecting the remedy: psora desires hot foods; syphilis prefers cold food; sycosis wants the food either hot or cold. Psora desires meats, but the combination of psora and syphilis, in the tubercular diathesis, has an aversion to meats.
With the bloating of the psoric patient, he cannot endure the slightest touch on the abdomen; he fears even the slightest contact.
While pure psora does not produce any structural changes, psora does produce functional changes; these are manifest in the chest condition by the anaemic manifestations that have their effect on the duty of furnishing oxygen for the red blood cells. The emotional reaction of psora hampers the natural functions to such an extent that the functions are disturbed and the oxygen circulation feels the lack of the vitalizing influence.
The coughs of psora are dry, teasing, spasmodic and annoying. The expectoration is usually mucous, scanty, tasteless. The salty and sweetish taste of the expectoration are dependable indications of the combined psoric and syphilitic taints.
In the heart there are functional disturbances with violent rushes of blood to the chest, and a sensation of weakness, goneness or fullness about the heart. The sensation as of a band is psoric. This miasm, or stigma, manifests its reflex relationship of gastric or uterine irritations by marked palpitations or sensations as of hammering about the heart. With the heart symptoms there is always anxiety and fear on the part of the patient. The psoric patient always fears that he will die from heart trouble; but the psoric patient is the chronic who lives long and produces income for the physician, for he is the victim of so many unpleasant sensations that he requires much attention, and his habit of fixing his attention upon one or more organs as being the cause of his discomfort demands constant attendance from the physician. He does have many uncomfortable sensations, such as sharp cutting neuralgic pains about the heart. These patients think they are about to die and want to lie down and keep quiet, but there is no danger; it is the sycotic and syphilitic heart patients who die, and then suddenly and without warning. The psoric heart conditions are very much influenced by strong emotions, joy, grief, fear, and so on. These conditions are worse eating and drinking; there are palpitations and eructations of large amounts of gas; sometimes the pulsations of the heart will shake the whole body. The psoric patient is always conscious of his heart condition, and it is he who is constantly taking his own pulse.
Psora alone produces more marked anasarca and dropsical conditions than sycosis. The sycotic patient succumbs before the dropsical condition becomes marked; but the union of these two stigmata produces these conditions in a marked degree.
The abdomen feels full after eating; there is much distension, worse in the morning. The muscles are flabby, and all abdominal pains are better by heat.
