The next case is particularly interesting to me in view of the remedy “Coffea” and the symptom “Fear of killing her child.”
Kents Repertory under “fear of killing” has Arsenicum alba and Rhus tox. in italics, neither of which seemed to fit her picture at all, and of those in low type Nux vom. and Sulphur were both given with no benefit.
In Herrings Guiding Symptoms there are only a few in the “mentals” section of Coffea but there is one fear “Full of apprehension of terrible things happening”, which did fit the symptom picture of my patient.
CASE VI
Mrs. A., age 35. Complained that her nerves had gone to pieces since the birth of her second child then six months old. The elder child was three years old.
She stated that the least change of routine, even a visitor to tea, (and she normally enjoyed entertaining), or having a meal delayed, or some little irritation by the children, gave her a violent headache, her face went hot and she felt excited and that she must scream and hit and bite.
She stated that she had hit both her husband and little boy during an attack and then broke down and said that she just lived in terror of hitting the child too hard and killing him.
The effort of coming for a consultation had brought on one of her attacks and she was flushed a deep beetroot colour all over her face and neck with dilated pupils and throbbing carotids.
Belladonna and Stramonium were tired with no benefit, as also were Nux vom. and Sulph as mentioned earlier, and then she gave the clue by saying that a happy emotion upset her much more than a sad one, and she was given Coffea 10M vi powders, to take one immediately she felt an attack coming on.
After a month she reported very much better and later sent for some more of “those magic powders”. She is still excitable, and likes to have a supply of powders in case of emergency, but she is very much more stable than she was, and has quite lost the fear of killing her child.
As a contrast to fear of disease and fear of the unknown and fear of killing the next two cases illustrate a “fear of life,” and both present a very similar picture. One an infant school teacher of 25, trusted by her headmistress, liked by her colleagues and excellent at her work, the other a successful business man of 47, and quite suddenly, for no apparent reason and completely without foundation each thought themselves a complete failure.
Each feared the days, dreading wakening up in the morning because they felt they could not face things, they feared to meet their friends, and they felt utterly incapable of performing a days work, though to the observer each completed the day competently and efficiently, and each was quite hopeless of recovery.
Lycopodium and Silica were tried in each case, and carried the school teacher through one had six moths without her having any sick leave. She remained well for a year and then a lovers quarrel precipitated the symptoms worse than before and she had to cease work for a time. Lycopodium and Silica, Sepia and Argentum nitricum were given with no benefit and then she made an unsuccessful attempt at suicide and Aurum was given. She steadily recovered and returned to work and was later married and has now been well as far as I know for the last 18 months.
In the case of the business man Lycopodium and Silica each helped a little and a six weeks holiday in America helped much more, but very quickly after returning he began to slip back and was then given Aurum with very definite benefit. He is not quite fit yet but is carrying on his business with reasonable confidence and cheerfulness.
My next case illustrates the well-known symptom of Opium. “Fright with the fear of the fright remaining”, but I think it is of some interest because of the lapse of approximately 30 years between the fright and the giving of the remedy.
Mrs. K., age 32 when seen in 1943.
History of epileptic fits, starting during the bombing of the 1914-1914 war, with an average of two major and many attacks of petit-mal per year since, and a marked increase in the number of major fits since the bombing in 1940.
She was an obese woman, fair, very nervous and apprehensive, with fear of the dark, easily depressed when she became weepy and was better for sympathy. < weather extremes.
Good appetite, liked everything except pork.
She was given Pulsatilla at intervals with improvement in her general health, but not much change in the fits, in fact she was in constant fear of having a fit with frequent “warnings” as she called them.
In 1947 I had a letter from her, part of which I quote: “I feel that fear of the air raids in the 14-18 war is at the bottom of all my trouble. I remember one night in particular, it was the first time the anti-aircraft guns were in action and no one knew what all the noise was. A bomb was dropped and could be plainly seen from where we lived, and then there were searchlights, mystifying frightening things to me because I did not understand them. I shall never forget that night although I was only 3 or 4 years old.
I grew up a nervous subject, I have never been nervous of the dark as such, but even now hate the dark with a sort of apprehension as something terrifying may happen during the house of darkness and now the fear seems to have become a complex thing, bound up with my emotions, so that they all seem to touch the old fear and bring on the warning of a fit. I have been told that in one of my fits I am always frightened, especially coming round.”
That is the end of the quotation and you will realize what a state of mind she was in, and as a result of that letter she was given Opium 10M, after which she had no fits for 18/12 and stated that she felt quite changed and released from her fear and in May 1948 stated that she felt wonderfully well. She had several fits again in 1849 Spring, which were brought on by the death of her little adopted child, but again was given Opium 200 followed by 10M one month later and she reported that she felt much better.
I am sure you will be glad that my next case is the last. The patient is full of fears and alas has had many remedies. She has been helped in the past many times, but each time has had a relapse.
The main fear is a fear of sleeplessness. The patient Miss M., age 67, did secretarial work until a year ago, with a few short breakdowns.
She was a very nervous and highly strung child and her first horror of sleeplessness was caused by being made to sleep alone on an inside balcony while at boarding school, as a punishment for talking in the dormitory. She stated that the balcony was under a large dome and close beside the main staircase which led down to the front door. She spent two nights of sleepless terror and since then has never been able to spend a night away from one home without spending each night in a similar condition. When she was younger she could endure it for two or three nights and would go away for weekends, but for years now she has never been away from home for a night.
She is afraid of the dark, afraid of being alone, terrified of becoming insane, and unfortunately visited her mother for six years in an asylum as she became insane following shock from burns, and another sister also died insane.
During the bad nights she is unable to stay in bed and paces up and down the room. She is really in very great distress and if the attacks last more than a few nights she feels really ill.
She has been my patient for 10 years, and in the early days Arsenicum and Sulphur would always end an attack and restore her to normal sleeping, but lately the attacks have been longer, and in her present attack all remedies have so far failed. She has had Opium, Phosphorus, Pulsatilla, Ignatia and Stramonium, all with no benefit.
These are only a few cases out of many, but they are enough to prove the efficacy of Homoeopathy in what is one of the most distressing conditions that patients can suffer.
Dr. FOUBISTER thanked Dr. Priestman for her paper on a subject of much practical importance in prescribing. He recalled a case of Dr. Tylers, a case of exophthalmic goitre which came on after a fright. The patient had been pinned down by a beam of wood in a house which had been bombed and set on fire during a Zeppelin raid in the first world war.
This woman experienced fear long afterwards when the frightening incident was recalled. “Fear, when fear of the fright remains,” led to the prescription of Opium, which cured. Another less dramatic case was that of a boy of seven, who had enuresis from the age of three-and-a-half, years. He had been dry from the second year until the age of three-and-a-half, when he had his tonsils removed, and came out of hospital in a frightened state of mind. There was very little else on which to prescribe, and Opium 200 was given, with a completely satisfactory result.
An usual kind of fear was experienced by a window cleaner who had fallen from a height and fractured both os calci. While in hospital he had nightmares, dreaming of the accident every night. His appearance and the persistent dreams of falling suggested Belladonna, which was given in the 10th potency. The dreams promptly ceased.
