Mental Conditions

Anger and Irritability: ailments after anger, vexation, fright, scorn or acute disappointment and mortification with anxiety. Complaints from hurry; from perceived violence. Anger, irascibility, and irritability; in the evening. Irritability in the morning on waking, during chill, after eating, during headache, during heat, during menses, and during perspiration. Irritability in liver troubles and from cough during whooping cough. Quarrelsome and inclined to scold those around him. Envious of others and feels himself unfortunate. Becomes violently angry from contradiction. After having been angry he is chilly, but has a red face with heat in the head.

Ill Humour: morose during whooping cough. Ill humour with needless anxiety and everything seems to put him in a bad mood. Mocking and sarcastic. Bad tempered and weeping mood. Wearisome, weeping, tearful mood, in day time and at night, before coughing, during the heat, during the perspiration; he feels nervous all day. Taciturn and disinclined to conversation. Answers hastily, does not ask for anything and wishes to be alone. He is averse to any company, particularly the presence of strangers and does not wish to be disturbed. Aversion to being touched.

Dissatisfaction: generally discontented and dissatisfied with himself. Complaining and despondent.

Anxieties and Apprehensions: extreme anxiety for the future, especially in the evening, in bed at night, before midnight; ameliorated in the open air. Anxiety about his health and thinking about his complaints aggravates his symptoms. Baseless anxiety; feels anxious in the house. The state of apprehension is felt in the whole body forcing him to do something constantly. He is always busy and thinks about his work or his business all the time. Hurried, impatient and industrious. Conscientious about trifles. Avarice, with a desire to have material objects and make plenty of money. Fear of poverty.

Restlessness: restlessness, nervousness, at night, with anxiety, during headache, during perspiration. Restlessness, causing him to toss and turn in bed and eventually drives him out of bed. Caprice: Capricious mood; has a desire for many things which when offered are refused; desire for change; obstinate. Lacks confidence and becomes hesitant. Timidity.

Stupefaction and Dullness: disinclined to think, with exhausted mental power. Indolence and aversion to work; irresolution. Stupefaction and confused hasty speech. Feels confused in the morning, on rising and in the afternoon, ameliorated in the open air. Persistent thoughts when walking. Confusion during the heat, as after being intoxicated; when lying, while riding, from motion, after sleeping, while walking, ameliorated by yawning. Confusion after drinking; ameliorated with eructations. The mind becomes so weak that his ideas seem to disappear, as if he would faint; he becomes hot in the face and feels worse standing. Inclination to sit. Momentary absence of mind with giddiness and forgetfulness. Dullness and sluggishness, while lying down and during chill. The imagination is sluggish with an inability to make any plans for the future. Ameliorated in the evening with clearness of mind and abundant ideas.

Depression: sadness and depression during heat and perspiration with much sighing. Wants to be quiet during chill and during heat. Becomes oversensitive during the chill. Sensitive to noise.

Despair of being cured and fear of death. He has many fears and is easily frightened, the fear rising up from the stomach; fear of being alone, of poverty, of death, of impending disease, of evil, of insanity, of narrow places, of being poisoned, when riding in a vehicle, of suffering, of starving, of thunderstorms. Mental symptoms before and during thunderstorms. Bryonia has ailments from mortification and from chagrin and these are usually headaches.

Psychosis and Delusions: Irrationality and psychosis with a desire to travel. Mental insecurity. Raging and raving during delirium, which occurs at daybreak, in the morning or in the evening, at night. On closing the eyes, he becomes loquacious and busy. He has a presentiment of death and many delusions: as if the bed were sinking, the bed is too hard, imagines he is doing business, sees dead persons, sees faces on closing eyes, illusions of fantasy; thinks is away from home, is in a strange land, is being injured, being beaten; sees people on closing eyes, thought he was pursued by soldiers, sees spectres, ghosts, spirits, friends appear as strangers. Desires to leave home and talks about home. During the delirium he attempts to escape through the window.

Impetuous during perspiration with moaning, groaning, during sleep. Symptoms are aggravated by heat. Starting on falling asleep in the evening, also in bed while lying awake; startled from sleep. Muttering and shrieking during sleep and becomes excitable with exaltation of fancies; very anxious and fearful during a fever. Talks about business matters when he is delirious and thinks he is somewhere else and wants to go home. Waves his hands around and gesticulates with the delirium. Unconsciousness in the morning, after delirium, during fever, on rising in the morning and on rising up. Suspicion.

With the information provided above, one can cure any condition that manifests the typical Bryonia picture, be it bronchitis, pneumonia, intercostal neuralgia, constipation, diarrhoea, etc. But the symptomatology must be present; dryness, aggravation from motion, irritability, the desire to be left alone, thirst etc.

Generalities

Kent writes:
‘This medicine is suitable in a great many diseases, diseases of a typhoid nature, diseases that take on a symptomatic typhoid, diseases that start out as remittents and run into a continued fever, as in pneumonia, pleurisy, inflammation of the liver, of glands, of the bowels, etc. It may be a gastro-enteritis or peritonitis, or inflammation of the bowels, with the sensitiveness, the aggravation from motion and the desire to keep perfectly still. Inflammation of joints, whether of rheumatic character or not, whether from cold, exposure or injury, Bryonia is often indicated in injuries of joints where Arnica would be a failure.

There is an extreme state of irritability in Bryonia; every word which compels him to answer a question or to think will aggravate him. The effort to talk will be attended with horror. At the beginning of complaints you go to the bedside of a patient who has been grumbling a few days; something is evidently coming on; the family meet you at the door and say, “The patient is almost unconscious;” you look at him, the face is puffed and purplish, he seems to be dazed, there appears to be a sort of venous stasis all over the body, but especially about the face; his countenance is almost that of an imbecile, yet he is perfectly capable of talking, although he has an aversion to it and appears to outsiders to ignore everything that is said.

This sometimes comes on apparently in a short time; the patient awakens in the morning with a dull, congestive headache and a stupid feeling in the head; dullness of mind so that he cannot work, and this feeling gradually increases; such a state is sometimes the forerunner of a serious illness. We find, when a pneumonia or inflammation of the liver, or some slow insidious inflammation is coming on somewhere in the body, but not yet located, that this state will begin in the morning. This is peculiar about the aggravation of Bryonia – its troubles commence many times early in the morning. On waking, with the first move, he realises that things are not all right, there is a state of stupidity bordering on unconsciousness. Those who have been grumbling for a week or ten days wake up in the morning feeling miserable; some time that night or the next day they have to send for the doctor. If this is watched for a few days, a continued fever is observed. Or at night a chill will come on, with much pain in the chest, rusty expectoration, short dry cough and other symptoms that will be spoken of under Bryonia later, showing that the trouble is going towards the chest; or the condition may gradually increase as a congestive, dull headache. This will be seen when congestion of the brain is coming on…

‘…There is a feature worthy of consideration because it sometimes makes a case appear inconsistent. It is due to his anxiety that pervades the whole body. In Bryonia as in Arsenic, there comes an anxious and uneasy feeling which compels him to move, but he is worse from motion, yet so uneasy and anxious that he must move. There are pains so violent that he cannot keep still, and yet when he moves he screeches from the pain. So it is really not an inconsistency but simply due to the great violence of the pain. Even though he knows that the motion is going to make him worse, he cannot keep still, for the pain is so violent. Early in the case he was able to keep still, and found that he was better from keeping still, and that the mental state was better from keeping still, and that the anxious restlessness increased the more he moved, until finally a reaction comes and he is obliged to move.
You would think, looking at the case superficially, that patient is better from motion as in Rhus-t., but in Rhus you find that the patient moves and in moving he gets feeble, and when he sits down the pains begin to come on again. There is the distinction between the two, and yet they look alike if not examined carefully. It is common for Bryonia to be ameliorated from cool air, and from cool applications. Now, if he moves, he gets warmed up, the pains are worse, but there are rheumatic complaints of Bryonia which are better from heat, and under these circumstances he is better from continued motion. It is another form of relief, and another of the modalities. I sometimes wonder whether Bryonia has a greater element of relief from heat, or greater element of relief from cold. Most of the head complaints that are of a congestive character are better from cool applications, from cold air, etc. Yet there are some of the Bryonia head complaints that are relieved by hot applications, and these seem to have no accompanying cerebral congestion. Bryonia has opposite modalities, but in all its opposite states there is still a grand nature running all through, sufficient to detect it.

In a damp climate Bryonia is one of the most frequently indicated remedies, but in the clear climates, where the thermometer runs low, Aconite will be indicated more than Bryonia. These atmospheric changes should be thoroughly considered in relation to our Materia Medica. The patient is worse from a warm room, worse from too much clothing, worse from the warmth of the bed, wants the windows open, wants to breathe fresh, cool air. He suffers more than ordinary persons from a stuffy room. Persons who are subject to Bryonia conditions suffer in church, at the opera, in close warm rooms, like Lycopodium. Girls who faint every time they go to church are relieved by Ignatia.’

Bryonia has a marked action on all the serous membranes and the viscera they contain, causing inflammation and exudation. It disorders circulation, alters the blood and gives rise to fevers of the typhoid, bilious, rheumatic and remittent types. The acute symptomatology of Bryonia has a tendency to develop gradually over a course of two to three days, similar to Gelsemium.

Characteristic stitching and tearing pain with aversion to the least movement. The patient avoids even moving the eyes, and raising the head from the pillow causes faintness, nausea and vomiting. This stitching pain is found everywhere, but especially in the chest. Bryonia has a strong effect on nerves and muscles, where it causes inflammation and soreness. Muscles become hard, after neuralgia.

The typical Bryonia patient is of dark complexion and hair, plethoric or choleric constitution, has a bilious tendency with firm fleshy fibre and a tendency to great irritability and bad temper. Easily angered (with biliousness, headache, and dyspepsia). Ailments after: anger, catalepsy from anger, chagrin, fright, suppressed eruptions and discharges; alcohol, over-indulgence in rich food and red meat, wounds; black or brown abscesses with acrid pus, suppressed abscesses. Ulcers of the skin with fistulae. Aluminium poisoning. Influenza. Measles after repelled exanthema. Lack of reaction in exanthema.

A remedy which closely resembles Bryonia and which is often effective when a case appears to call for Bryonia but fails to respond, is Stellaria media. It is a remedy for rheumatism, stiffness of the joints, synovitis, general irritability; the neck muscles are ‘stiff and sore’; ‘the eyes feel protruded’. There is an aggravation from movement in this remedy as well.

There is typically an aggravation from heat. Complaints from drinking cold drinks in hot weather, from taking cold or getting hot in summer; complaints when the warm weather sets in after cold days. Irritability of mind and tissues runs through this remedy and chilliness predominates. Headache or neuralgia in (left) side of the head and face, aggravated by moving and ameliorated by hard pressure and cold applications.

There is a peculiarity of Bryonia that one may encounter in elderly patients. Arteriosclerotic patients will tend to make a lateral chewing motion with their jaws; it is somewhat like a cow chewing its cud. This chewing motion can also be seen in febrile children when there is brain involvement.

Dryness of the mucous membranes; scanty discharges. Dry, burning heat, as if blood were burning in the veins or one part cold with heat of another. Flushes as if warm water were poured over one and a sensation of heat in the evening in bed. Profuse sour or oily sweat night and morning. Dryness of the mouth and stomach; extreme thirst, worse from drinking beer. Desire for food which cannot be had or refuses things when offered. There are no particularly strong desires and aversions in Bryonia’s food preferences with the exception of a strong desire for oysters and for meat. There is also a desire for warm drinks which ameliorate the stomach symptomatology. Bryonia is gluttonous in its eating and suffers many digestive complaints. Food lies like a stone; ameliorated by bringing up wind. Eructations of tasteless gas is characteristic. Symptoms worse after a meal. The tongue is foul and everything tastes bitter. Sour stomach. Digestion usually worse in the summer. Teste regards the digestive canal, and more particularly the stomach, as the principal seat of the action of Bryonia. Diarrhoea in the morning as soon as he moves, but more commonly constipation with large, dry, burnt looking stools. Stools that smell of old cheese. Bryonia is one of the main remedies for constipation when the stool is large, hard, and dry; there seems to be no mucous lining to the intestines to facilitate the passage of the stool. There is also a deficiency of peristaltic activity in the bowels. Inflammation and tenderness of the liver and kidneys. Urine is dark red but without deposit.

Haemorrhages are frequent; nosebleed especially in the night around 3-4 am is characteristic. Nosebleed from the suppression of menses. Bryonia has been found to be curative in chlorosis. Mastitis with hardness and tenderness of the breasts. Pain in the left ovary ameliorated by lying on the painful side. Stupid, drowsy condition during fever, where the patient has the delusion that he is somewhere else and “wants to go home”. Headaches which are bursting, splitting and go backwards and are worse for any movement or from coughing. Headaches from over-indulgence in alcohol and food. Convulsions from suppressed eruptions, after perspiration and after haemorrhages where the aura begins with jerking in the nape of the neck. The respiratory organs and heart are profoundly affected. A characteristic of Bryonia is a frequent desire to take a long breath; must expand the lungs. The Bryonia cough can be quite painful; patients will be seen to hold their chests when coughing in order to minimise the painful motion of the chest wall. Dropsical swellings into synovial and serous membranes, painful to touch, which increase as the day goes on and disappear during the night. Hot swelling of the affected parts. Swelling of glands, like nodes. Joints red, swollen and stiff with stitching pain from the slightest motion. Children dislike to be carried or raised. Pains are bursting, stitching or heavy and go backwards and appear gradually. Pain tends to move to the part lain on and after the pain has subsided the patient trembles. On coughing he holds his sides, the chest and the head. Burning pain of parts grasped with the hand and burning and tearing pains externally and internally. Pressing pain as from load or pressing pain outward, from within.

Painful joints, worse motion and touch. Often indicated in an injury of the joint when Arnica fails. Stitching in affected parts upon pressure. Jerking, especially in places of the forehead, with sensitivity of the teeth. Bruised or suppurating pain in whole body when taken hold of, especially in the pit of the stomach, worse in the morning. Pain worse on the right side; pain from motion and worse during rest. Drawing pain and tension in almost all the limbs, especially in sinewy expansions. Physical weakness from the slightest exertion, with general sweat. Worse in the morning, on rising; in the morning while walking so that he drags himself about. Weakness felt in the knees and legs on ascending stairs. Unsteadiness of all parts of the body when walking. Faintness on rising from the bed, with cold sweat and rumbling in the abdomen. Disappearance of symptoms after a short rest in bed, except the weakness and depressed mood. Rapid cooling after heated walk causes weakness and sore bruised pain. Symptoms are usually right sided, worse in the morning around 9 a.m. and in the evening at 9 p.m. Aggravation from annoyance, from warmth, in cool days after the summer; from cold wind; change of weather, cold to warm aggravates, becoming hot in a room or in the open air, drinking while hot; warm, wet applications. Aggravation after sitting up, rising from a seat and on beginning to walk, better for continued walking; worse ascending, physical exertion, running, stepping or jar; lying on the side, the painless side, worse from touch. Worse before, at the beginning of and during sleep. Worse from vegetables, acids, early morning. Aggravation from suppressed coryza or suppressed eruptions or discharges. Amelioration from pressure; made better by lying on the affected part, lying on the back, in a warm bed with heat to the inflamed part, bandaging the affected part, for cool; for open air, for quiet; cloudy, damp days; drawing knees up; descending, sitting up, cold food and drink after eating, from perspiration, from diarrhoea, in the evening from 6-9 p.m.