Abstract

Introduction:Polychrest remedies like Lachesis muta are commonly found to be useful in both the acute and chronic morbid conditions. Between April 2012 and March 2013, more than 21000 patients visited the Delhi Government Homeopathic Dispensary Aali village, primary health centre, out of which nearly 1.4% cases presented with keynote symptomatology of Lachesis muta. It provided an ample opportunity to clinically verify some of the well-known indications of the polychrest.

Objectives:a. To clinically verify the indicating symptomatology of Lachesis muta in the study group.b. To observe, with respect to the polychrest remedy: The various clinical conditions in which it was prescribed; Posology; The minimum time of favorable response to the remedy in various clinical conditions; the mean time of recovery in each diagnostic condition, and; the therapeutic outcome.

Materials and Methods:A retrospective data analysis as per the objectives, of 193 patients confirming with the defined inclusion criteria was conducted.

Results and Discussion:These patients fell between 6 months and 70 years with 29.6 years being the mean age of presentation; out of these 67 were males and 126 were females. 25 characteristic features/concomitant symptoms or modalities of Lachesis muta from textbooks of homoeopathic materia medica were clinically verified and guided the polychrest remedy selection in 36 different diagnostic conditions. It was strongly verified in various acute conditions, that the response to indicated homoeopathic remedy can be judged within a few hours.

Conclusion:Though the homoeopathic materia medica by stalwarts is irreplaceable, their clinical sections require a scientific appraisal. This work is a first attempt to identify the clinical conditions amenable to a polychrest remedy in the current times and gauge the posology and remedy response time as well as therapeutic outcome. Further multi-centric studies with more scientific rigour can validate as well as clinically verify the symptomatology of Lachesis muta by the use of Bayesian statistics.

Keywords

Homoeopathic remedy, Lachesis muta, Data analysis, Symptomatology, Polychrests portray, Exclusion criteria, Bayesian statistics, Pathogenetic trials, Data analysis, Anti-onflammatory, Anti-pyretic, Antibiotics, Anti-hypertensive, Hypoglycemic drugs, Jealousy, Religious Disposition, Loquacity, Sibling rivalry