Clinical Cases

A Case of Psoriasis Vulgaris Managed With Classical Homeopathy

Written by Kamal Jalodia

Dr. Kamal Jalodia shares a case of psoriasis Vulgaris in a girl of 15. This case demonstrates that classical homeopathy not only helps in skin clearance but also improves general health.

Keywords:  psoriasis, homeopathy, case report, precision medicine

Background:

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory and hyper-proliferative skin condition, affecting over 2 percent of the global population.1 The etiology is multifactorial. Drugs, lifestyle, trauma (Koebner phenomenon), stress, and infections all have a role in the pathogenesis.2

There is evidence that psoriasis has strong genetic and epigenetic components to it. According to recent research, the HLA-Cw6 and LCE3 genes play an important role in the development of psoriasis.3,4  Clinical research has shown that stress has an important role in the onset and exacerbation of psoriasis, emphasizing the link between major stressful life events and disease onset. 5,6

When triggered, T-cells secrete cytokines, which mediate an immune response. Disturbances in the innate and adaptive immunity due to gene mutations are responsible for sustained psoriatic inflammation.7 Besides this, psoriasis shows a clear autoimmune mechanism in which auto antigen LL37 has been attributed.8

The hallmark of psoriasis is chronic inflammation which overlaps with autoimmune response that leads to uncontrolled keratinocyte proliferation and retention in the stratum corneum causing hyperplasia.2

Classic psoriatic lesion presents as red, scaly, well demarcated plaques particularly over extensor surfaces of the body. Diagnosis of psoriasis is clinical. It is clinically classified as pustular and non-pustular type of psoriasis.2 The variants under each type are listed in table 1.

The immune response varies in each clinical variant and displays discrete treatment outcomes Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI) is used to measure severity and percentage of areas affected. The disease is extremely variable in the periodicity of its flares, extent, and clearance.

Recent advances in the treatment with use of biologics have short term response and cause massive immune suppression.2 Hence, more research is required to understand the role and relevance of complementary therapies.9 Many studies exist which provide favorable outcomes for use of homeopathy in psoriasis.5,10 This case report suggests an alternative for treatment of psoriasis with classical homeopathy.

Case report:

A 15-year-old girl developed psoriasis vulgaris since 2015. The eruptions appeared after she was isolated from her parents and sent to live with her grandparents. She used to weep by herself in bed when no one else was around. First consultation took place on 14/03/2019.The symptoms available for prescription were:

  • Ailments from grief (+++)
  • Weeping when alone (++)
  • Tearful mood at night (++)
  • Vertigo <rising on (++)
  • Desire- salt (+++)
  • Desire sour (+)
  • Psoriasis of palms (+)
  • Psoriasis of legs (++)

Past history: The girl had history of febrile convulsions during high fever in childhood. Further, she reported 2 incidents of super infection in eruptions and intervention with antibiotics when she was under the previous pluralist homoeopath.

Family history: Father – Hemorrhoids and Paternal grandmother osteoarthritis. Otherwise, the health of family was good

Diagnosis: psoriasis (ICD-10:L40)11

Case analysis and prescription:

At the time of consultation, her baseline PASI score was 5.2 (Fig. 1). After a thorough investigation, it was obvious that psoriasis started after grief of separation from parents, and it gave rise to a specific totality of symptoms (Fig. 2). Natrum muraticum 10M one dose was prescribed on 14/03/2019. The follow up of the case is listed in Table 2.

Discussion:

Psoriasis is an autoimmune disease, and it necessitates a multifaceted strategy that goes beyond just skin clearance to enhance overall quality of life. While conventional medicine concentrates on reducing the inflammation and skin clearance, classical homeopathy explores the reaction of an individual’s immune system to the genetic and epigenetic trigger.4,12

The result of this struggle manifests as physical, emotional and mental symptoms depending on the overall health at the moment of stress, which guides the homoeopath to choose a remedy.12,13

The theory of levels of health propounded by Prof. George Vithoulkas provides a wealth of information regarding the disease, its treatment and prognosis for a case. There are twelve levels, which are further classified into four groups (A-D).14  Besides that, it also gives guidelines for evaluation of acute diseases during the chronic homeopathic treatment.

The above presented case belongs to group C with no significant fevers in the recent past, except during superinfection. Patient developed an acute within 10 days after homeopathic intervention. According to the theory, appearance of fever within the first few days of treatment for a chronic inflammatory disease indicates a healthy immune system and is an encouraging sign that the remedy was correct and the case is curable.14

The acute diseases must be carefully handled especially given the danger of sepsis in these cases.5 The general guideline here is to interfere with a remedy only when the acute is due to a complication or severe infection, in which case either a clear new remedy picture will be available or in the absence of such a picture, the chronic remedy may be repeated. Otherwise, a hands-off approach yields the desirable results.

Her baseline PASI score was 5.2 and she achieved a complete skin clearance (PASI 0) within 3 months of classical homeopathic treatment and a shift in her health level was appreciable. The Modified Naranjo Criteria for Homeopathy (MONARCH) causality assessment provided a score of 10, suggesting a significant causal relationship to the treatment (Table 3).15

This case demonstrates that classical homeopathy may have a solution to psoriasis which not only helps in skin clearance but also to improve general health. Hence, homeopathy must be scientifically investigated further in light of such evidence.

Conclusion:

This case displays a complete skin clearance with overall improvement of general health and PASI score. While this case shows a positive result for treatment of psoriasis caused by psychological stress through individualized classical homeopathy, extensive research is necessary to establish the therapeutic advantage observed here.

Acknowledgements: The author thanks Dr Aaditi Lakshman for help in preparing the manuscript

References:

  1. Griffiths CEM, van der Walt JM, Ashcroft DM, et al. The global state of psoriasis disease epidemiology: a workshop report. In: British Journal of Dermatology. Vol 177. Blackwell Publishing Ltd; 2017:e4-e7. doi:10.1111/bjd.15610
  2. Rendon A, Schäkel K. Psoriasis pathogenesis and treatment. Int J Mol Sci. 2019;20(6). doi:10.3390/ijms20061475
  3. Chandra A, Lahiri A, Senapati S, et al. Increased Risk of Psoriasis due to combined effect of HLA-Cw6 and LCE3 risk alleles in Indian population. Sci Rep. 2016;6. doi:10.1038/srep24059
  4. Woo YR, Cho DH, Park HJ. Molecular mechanisms and management of a cutaneous inflammatory disorder: Psoriasis. Int J Mol Sci. 2017;18(12). doi:10.3390/ijms18122684
  5. Mahesh S, Shah V, Mallappa M, Vithoulkas G. Psoriasis cases of same diagnosis but different phenotypes—Management through individualized homeopathic therapy. Clin Case Reports. 2019;7(8):1499-1507. doi:10.1002/ccr3.2197
  6. Martins AM, Ascenso A, Ribeiro HM, Marto J. The Brain-Skin Connection and the Pathogenesis of Psoriasis: A Review with a Focus on the Serotonergic System. Cells. 2020;9(4). doi:10.3390/cells9040796
  7. Shao S, Gudjonsson JE. Epigenetics of Psoriasis. In: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology. Vol 1253. Springer; 2020:209-221. doi:10.1007/978-981-15-3449-2_8
  8. Herster F, Bittner Z, Archer NK, et al. Neutrophil extracellular trap-associated RNA and LL37 enable self-amplifying inflammation in psoriasis. Nat Commun. 2020;11(1). doi:10.1038/s41467-019-13756-4
  9. Timis TL, Florian IA, Mitrea DR, Orasan R. Mind‐body interventions as alternative and complementary therapies for psoriasis: A systematic review of the English literature. Med. 2021;57(5). doi:10.3390/medicina57050410
  10. Witt CM, Lüdtke R, Willich SN. Homeopathic treatment of patients with psoriasis – A prospective observational study with 2 years follow-up. J Eur Acad Dermatology Venereol. 2009;23(5):538-543. doi:10.1111/j.1468-3083.2009.03116.x
  11. 2021 ICD-10-CM Codes L40*: Psoriasis. Accessed June 20, 2021. https://www.icd10data.com/ICD10CM/Codes/L00-L99/L40-L45/L40-
  12. Vithoulkas G and Tiller.w. The Science of Homeopathy. 7th Edition.; 2014.
  13. Vithoulkas G, Carlino S. The “continuum” of a unified theory of diseases. Med Sci Monit. 2010;16(2).
  14. Vithoulkas G. Levels of Health.; 2017.
  15. Lamba CD, Gupta VK, Van Haselen R, et al. Evaluation of the Modified Naranjo Criteria for Assessing Causal Attribution of Clinical Outcome to Homeopathic Intervention as Presented in Case Reports. Homeopathy. 2020;109(4):191-197. doi:10.1055/s-0040-1701251

Table 1 – classification of psoriasis

                                     Classification of psoriasis (ICD-10 Code):
Non-pustular psoriasis: Pustular psoriasis:
1.     Psoriasis vulgaris (L40.0)        1.Generalised pustular psoriasis (L40.1)
2.     Guttate psoriasis (L40.4)        2.Localized pustular psoriasis (L40.2)
3.     Erythrodermic psoriasis (L40.8)
4.     Palmoplantar psoriasis (L40.3)
5.     Psoriatic arthritis (L40.5)
6.     Inverse psoriasis (L40.8)

Table 2 – Follow up of the case.

DATE SYMPTOMS PRESCRIPTION
19/04/2019 ·        Patient developed fever on 25/03/2019 with no clear remedy picture, they did not record the temperature

·        Skin eruptions are better (Fig. 3)

·        LMP- 10/04/2019; Dysmenorrhoea is better

·        Vertigo increased <rising on

·        Shortness of breath <ascending stairs, exertion.

·        Appetite is better

 placebo
30/05/2019 ·        Skin eruptions cured (Fig. 4)

·        No vertigo and shortness of breath.

·        LMP- 15/05/2019; No dysmenorrhoea.

·        Desire salt- reduced

·        Desire sour- reduced.

·        Generally better.

placebo
04.01.20201 ·        Her skin is still better with no lesion of psoriasis

·        Menses regular, no dysmenorrhoea.

·        She now visits with acutes such as otitis

Table 3: Modified Naranjo Criteria for Homeopathy (MONARCH) – for causality assessment

Criteria Y N Not sure/NA Score in case
1. Was there an improvement in the main symptom or condition for which the homeopathic medicine was prescribed? 2 -1 0 2
2. Did the clinical improvement occur within a plausible time frame relative to the drug intake? 1 -2 0 1
3. Was there an initial aggravation of symptoms? 1 0 0 1
4. Did the effect encompass more than the main symptom or condition, i.e., were other symptoms ultimately improved or changed? 1 0 0 1
5. Did overall well-being improve? 1 0 0 1
6 (A) Direction of cure: did some symptoms improve in the opposite order of the development of symptoms of the disease? 1 0 0 0
6 (B) Direction of cure: did at least two of the following aspects apply to the order of improvement of symptoms:- from organs of more importance to those of less importance, from deeper to more superficial aspects of the individual, from the top downwards 1 0 0 1
7. Did “old symptoms” (defined as non-seasonal and non-cyclical symptoms that were previously thought to have resolved) reappear temporarily during the course of improvement? 1 0 0 0
8. Are there alternate causes (other than the medicine) that with a high probability could have caused the improvement? (consider known course of disease, other forms of treatment, and other clinically relevant interventions) -3 1 0 1
9. Was the health improvement confirmed by any objective evidence? (photos before and after treatment) 2 0 0 2
10. Did repeat dosing, if conducted, create similar clinical improvement? 1 0 0 0
Total 10

Figure 1: psoriasis before treatment (14/03/2019)

Figure 2: Reportorial result on 14/03/2019 (Vithoulkas compass)

Figure 3: psoriasis during treatment (19/04/2019)

Figure 4: psoriasis after treatment (30/05/2019)

About the author

Kamal Jalodia

Dr Kamal Jalodia is a Classical Homoeopath practising since 23 years. He completed D.H.M.S from Kolkata India, further studied the Dip. IACH (Greece) under Prof. George Vithoulkas from 2006-2008. He also trained at the PG. Course on “Levels of Health” by Prof. George Vithoulkas in 2011, and the Advanced PG course at IACH (Greece) in 2015&2019. He is the coordinator of the IACH E-Learning Programme for Kolkata (India).

8 Comments

  • The patient cannot belong to group C if she has improved with a single drug- according to levels of health by George Vithoulkas

    • Dr Saritha, she developed acute fever after 10 days of remedy, which improved without any intervention. that is one pont in favour of case belonging to grp-c level-7 and 2nd is acute otitis appearing in recent times for which she needed Belladonna as second remedy. The impressive reaction to nat-mur which is confusing you as to case belonging to higer levels is because the remedy was clear in this case, and there was no deep genetic predisposition in her ancestory, the causative factor was so severe that lead to droping of her levels of heath from higher (which she was born ) to lower levels -7.

  • Is there a cure for segmented vitiligo in classical homeopathy?
    Suggest a good classical homeopath contact to consult in Delhi or online.

  • Wonderfully presented case, Dr. Kamal. Especially liked the Modified Naranjo Criteria for Homeopathy (MONARCH) – for causality assessment. I presume this can be used for all cases?

  • I was suffering from acute skin disease on the back of my palm perhaps in 2018. My friends and office colleague had advised me to go to Tropical Disease department of Calcutta Medical college. My office pharmacy has also arranged various ointments for me. But I had faith in my family physician Dr K.Jalodia. I took his homeopathy medicine and within 3 to 4 months it was completely gone .

  • Group C has only mild acute with lower fever. That is short-lived and resolve without further treatment.
    If it is treated correctly with an appropriate remedy, they may begin to develop the acute condition again with a high fever.
    Nice learning. Thank you sir.

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