hyoscyamus niger

Moral :- The main feeling of Hyoscyamus is that of being suddenly let down, disappointed, betrayed and deserted by the person on whom one is completely dependent. This situation causes in the patient acute fear and panic. It also causes a variety of reactions which are, on the one hand, attractive, e.g.  loquacity, jesting, sexuality, etc., and on the other hand threatening, e.g.  violence, striking and desire to kill. 

• There is a tremendous fear of being alone and of facing the danger of the outside world all by oneself. The acuteness of the feeling creates a kind of insanity, which is foolish. The patient tries to attract attention by foolish behaviour, behaviour so ridiculous that it can provoke laughter. Like other remedies of the acute miasm the Hyoscyamus person is very excitable, and the symptoms appear and disappear suddenly. 

• The situation of Hyoscyamus is that of a man deeply in love with his wife who is having an extramarital affair. He is afraid that she will leave him and that he will be left all alone. He also feels threatened by her; she might try to poison him or do him some harm in order to try to get away. But as he loves her, he has to keep the relationship going. He tries to attract her attention by joking, talking and sexual behaviour. At the same time, he has to be suspicious and cautious, because he feels threatened by her. He is also extremely jealous of the other man. So he can also become angry and violent. All the time, he feels that he is being wronged, that he is being persecuted. This may appear like Lyssinum, but in the latter, the feeling of persecution and the resultant violent reaction are episodic. In Hyoscyamus the feeling is very acute and the instantaneous reaction is that of suspicion, a foolish excitability, open sexuality and violence. It may also appear like Lachesis. But Lachesis is sycotic and is very clever and calculative, whereas Hyoscyamus is acute and his reaction is ridiculous; he tries to attract attention by foolish behaviour and antics and can also get threatening, with violence and striking. 

• One of the main features of Hyoscyamus could be a feeling of being sexually unattractive. The reaction to this is an open, shameless sexuality. He exhibits his lewd sexual desire in an overt, foolish way through a lot of loud talk, exposing the genitals, etc. It is complementary to Staphisagria which is the picture of suppressed sexuality and aggressiveness, whereas in Hyoscyamus the same is openly expressed. No wonder then that Hyoscyamus has the delusion of seeing peacocks, which are the most colourful and attractive of birds. It also has the delusion of hens tied up in chains, which I understand to be the feeling of facing an acute threat. 

Clinical :- 

 - Amaurosis.  - Angina pectoris.  - Bladder, paralysis of.  - Bronchitis.  - Chorea.  - Coma vigil.  - Cough.  - Delirium tremens.  - Diarrhoea.  - Dysmenorrhoea.  - Enteric fever.  - Epilepsy.  - Epistaxis.  - Erotomania.  - Eyes, affections of.  - Haemoptysis.  - Haemorrhages.  - Hiccough.  - Hydrophobia.  - Hypochondriasis.  - Lochia, suppressed.  - Mania.  - Meningitis.  - Mind, affections of.  - Neuralgia.  - Night-blindness.  - Nymphomania.  - Paralysis.  - Paralysis agitans.  - Parotitis.  - Pneumonia.  - Puerperal mania.  - Rage.  - Sleep, disordered.  - Stammering.  - Tetanus.  - Toothache.  - Urine, retention of.  - Vision, disorders of. 

comments by stalwarts :-

• The delirium of Hyos. is more of the low, muttering type, whist that of Bell. tends to be violent and furious.

•  Hyos. also has fits of ungovernable rage, but the violence is not so sustained as that of Bell. The face of Bell. is red of Hyos. pale or bluish. Hyos. corresponds to a great variety of cases of melancholia than Bell. and here one great characteristic is "suspicion," so frequently met with in cases of insanity or of those on the borderland, (Lach.)

•  A patient, a clever lawyer, suffering from nervous breakdown, had to abandon his business entirely some time before he came under my care. He had improved alot, when I heard from his wife in the country that he had a kind of a fit and became cold and senseless, his face working much. After that he fell asleep and had another attack an hour and a half later.

•  After this he was suspicious and said that his wife was poisoning him. I sent a single dose of Hyos. 1,000c to be given in food or in drink without his knowing. It was repeated once a week. He began to improve forthwith and in a few months was perfectly restored to health, though some other medicines were given later on.

•  In this case there was an additional indication of Hyos. in the working of the muscles of the face. Twitching is one of the grand characteristics of Hyos. "Every muscle in the body twitches from the eyes to the toes," clonic spasms: twitching of groups of muscles, spasms in general with unconsciousness.

•  Another feature of the Hyos. insanity is uncovering. This is not because the patient feels too warm, but because they will not remain covered: nymphomania, lascivious mania, lies naked in bed and chatters. There are violent outbreaks in the delirium of Hyos., but they cannot be kept up (as are those of Bell.), on account of the weakness.

•  Hyos. corresponds to the typhoid state: tongue dry and unwieldy, sensorium so clouded that if the patient be aroused to answer he falls back into a stupor again.

•  The sight is disordered, sees things too large or too near and grasps at them, picks the bedclothes and mutters. Twitchings, subsultus tendinum and picking at the bed-clothes. Teeth covered with sordes. Involuntary passage of urine and feces.

•  When influenza takes the typhoid form if often finds its remedy in Hyos. Clarke rapidly cured a boy in whom influenza attacked the meninges of the brain with pains in the head, especially forehead, piercing to the brain. Parotiditis with metastasis to brain.

•  Hyos. is suited to many pulmonary conditions. The characteristic cough is worse on lying down, almost completely removed by sitting up, worse at night, worse after eating, drinking or talking. Cough from elongated uvula.

•  The drowsiness of Hyos. has another side in restlessness. The patient lies awake for hours, children twitch in sleep, cry out, tremble and awake frightened. Hyos. 30c is one of the most useful remedies in restlessness and sleeplessness.

compare :-

- Suppression of lochia, Nux, Secal., Con., Col., Pul.; loquacity, Stram., Lach., Op., Cup., Ver.; gossiping, babbling, Ver. (religious subjects, Ver.); difficult swallowing of liquids, Hydrob., Bell., Caus., Con., Ign., Lach., Lyc., Pho.

 

 - Convulsions from fright or worms, Cin. 

 - Every muscle of the body twitching, Nux (but Nux retains consciousness, Hyo. has unconsciousness); cough agg. lying down, Dros.; (>> lying down, Mang., Fer.); cough agg. at night, after eating, drinking, talking, singing, Dros., Phos.; haemoptysis of drunkards, Nux, Op.; meningitis, Bell. (Bell. has agg. from shaking head; from sitting with head bent forward; Hyo. has >> from both); tickling cough >> in warm air, Rumex; convulsions, spasms, twitchings, Cic. v.; chorea, Stram., Ver., Agar; jealousy, Apis, Ign.; waves through head, Act. r.; mania, Stram. 

 - (Stram. has desire for light and company, Hyo. aversion to both; Stram. uncovers whole body, Hyo. especially the genitals; sexual mania, Grat., Calc. ph.; Stram. sees objects - mice, dogs, and c. - rise from every corner and come towards him); sees ghosts and demons, Plat., Kali bro.; fears being poisoned, Glo., Rhus, Kali bro., Bapt.; hiccough, Ign. 

 - (Ign. after emotions, Hyo. after abdominal operations); spasms, twitchings, Ign., Tarent.; levitation, Phos. ac., Sticta pul., Hyp.; fits of ungovernable rage, Staph. 

 - Teste puts Hyo. in the Mur. ac. group with Viol. od. 

 - He also puts it in the Bell. group. 

Remedy Relationship :-

Antidoted by  - Vinegar, Citric acid, Bell., Chi., Stram. It antidotes  - Ether, Bell., Stram., Merc. Is followed well by  - Bell., Puls., Stram., Ver., Phos. Follows well  - Bell., Nux, Op., Rhus. 

Sources :-

• MORAL :- The soul of remedy by rajan sankaran. 

• Diagram & its Contains :- 

- Keynotes & characteristics with comparisons by H.C.allen 

          - Physiological materia medica by W.H.Burt

- materia medica of homoeopathic medicines by S.R.Phatak

• Clinical :- Dictionary of practical materia medica by J.H. Clarke 

• Comments :- Homoeopathic remedy guide by R.MURPHY  

• Compare, Remedy Relationship :- Dictionary of practical materia medica by J.H. Clarke 

prepared by :- karnav thakkar.