The basic and only mission of a physician is to cure a patient (Aphorism 1). To achieve this mission, a homoeopathic physician relies entirely on the symptoms of the patient. When taking a case, patients often present many symptoms, but not all are equally important. The characteristic symptoms, which make the patient different from others, are crucial for prescribing the correct remedy. Common symptoms, on the other hand, do not help in individualizing a prescription (Aphorism 153).
Dr. Kent emphasized that if a case lacks the symptoms that characterize the patient, it is not a complete case, and a good homoeopathic prescription cannot be made. The goal is to identify the symptoms that show how this patient is different from others with the same disease.
Classification of Symptoms According to Dr. Kent
Dr. Kent classified symptoms into three main types:
- General Symptoms
- Common Symptoms
- Particular Symptoms
Each of these types is further classified into three grades based on their reliability and occurrence.
1. General Symptoms
General symptoms relate to the patient as a whole. A symptom appearing in more than two parts of the body is also considered general. Mental symptoms are always included as general symptoms because they reflect the overall state of the patient.
- Mental Symptoms: The highest importance is given to mental derangements such as loss of will to live, suicidal tendencies, emotional disturbances like love, hate, desires, and aversions. Next are intellectual symptoms like confusion, hallucinations, and delusions, followed by memory-related issues.
- Physical Symptoms: Abnormalities in menses, burning sensations in palms, soles, or vertex, and general thirst are all considered general. Even misperceptions from the senses (e.g., seeing imaginary rats) are general symptoms since they reflect the mind rather than a particular organ.
Importance: General symptoms are the most critical for prescribing homoeopathic remedies. For example, a patient with general symptoms like chilliness, coryza, irritability, constipation with ineffectual urging, and short temper can be prescribed Nux vomica, regardless of the underlying disease such as rheumatoid arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, or retinal detachment.
2. Common Symptoms
Common symptoms are seen in many patients and provers and are often related to the diagnosis of a disease. These symptoms are shared by all patients with a particular condition and do not help individualize treatment.
Example: In hepatitis, symptoms like anorexia, vomiting, right hypochondrium tenderness, hepatomegaly, jaundice, dark yellow urine, and weight loss are common. These symptoms help diagnose hepatitis but do not show what makes one patient different from another.
Key Point: Common symptoms do not guide the selection of a homoeopathic remedy. Only characteristic symptoms matter.
3. Particular Symptoms
Particular symptoms are localized to a specific part or organ and are often the result of the disease process. Examples include eruptions, warts, or ulcers.
- These symptoms are less important than general symptoms.
- Treating general symptoms often automatically resolves particular symptoms.
- Prescribing based solely on particular symptoms is called pathological prescribing, which may palliate but never cure the patient.
Grades of Symptoms
Each type of symptom (general, common, particular) is further classified into three grades:
- Grade One:
- Recorded during proving
- Confirmed by re-proving
- Verified on the sick
- Grade Two:
- Seen in few provers
- Confirmed on re-proving
- Verified only a few times in the sick
- Grade Three (Clinical Symptoms):
- Rare in provings
- Not confirmed on re-proving
- Verified many times in patients
Note: Dr. Boenninghausen also described a fourth grade, which included symptoms never verified on the sick. Dr. Kent considered these part of grade three.
Methods of Evaluation
Dr. Kent’s Method:
- Mental symptoms
- Physical general symptoms
- Physical particular symptoms
Dr. Boenninghausen’s Method:
- Quis – Changes in personality and temperament
- Quid – Disease individualization
- Ubi – Seat of the disease
- Quibus auxiliis – Concomitants
- Cur – Prima causa morbi (cause of the disease)
- Quomodo – Modalities
- Quando – Time factor
Understanding the types, grades, and importance of symptoms is fundamental for accurate homoeopathic prescribing.
- General symptoms are paramount and should form the basis of prescription.
- Common symptoms aid diagnosis but are not crucial for individualization.
- Particular symptoms are secondary and resolve when general symptoms are treated.
- Evaluating symptoms systematically ensures safe, effective, and individualized treatment.
This knowledge helps homoeopathic physicians fulfill their primary mission: to cure patients by recognizing the unique symptom profile of each individual.