Mental Derangement


Mental Derangement. July 23, 1904. Mrs. E. M. D., aged forty-five years, has been distressed by an adopted daughter. Finger ends sensitive, does not want them t


July 23, 1904. Mrs. E. M. D., aged forty-five years, has been distressed by an adopted daughter. Finger ends sensitive, does not want them touched. Spine, sensitive spots- one in dorsal region, one in coccyx. Head sensation of a steel band over forehead. Used to have menstrual headaches. Constipation. No children. Sensitive to heat. Feet, ankles and sometimes legs, cold. Tearful. Sleep ameliorates. Friend reports: She is very suspicious of her husband and a neighbour woman, without cause. Father was insane about a year. Imagines her daughter the cause of her troubles. Many imaginations; scolds her husband; abuses people without occasion; will not work, takes no interest in her home. Talks constantly. Headache mornings, when waking. Perspiration during night. Weary. Lachesis 500.

July 30. Grating in joints; an old symptom, continued one day. Stirring here and there (old symp.). Sleeping well. Less tearful. Pulsating in stomach. Perspiration in sleep, day and night. Head hot to touch. Conscious of her uterus. Sach.

Aug. 13. Appetite reported improved a week ago, for the first, also more interest in her work. Perspiration on back and shoulders after first taking Lachesis Twitching of eyes. Loneliness; forsaken sensation. Trembling; tremulous after doing some housework. Anxious; was always anxious. Abdomen, sore sensation (0. S.). (<) respiration. Generally (<) before a storm. Constipation; has used enema every day. Feces slip back. Feces knotty. Silica cm.

Aug. 20. Hot flushes (0. S.). Less nervous tremor and less headache. Abdomen sensitive to clothing. Must recline on back to sleep. Bowels much improved, daily normal evacuation in the morning. Sach. l.

Sept. 21. Improved; less perspiration; can sleep while reclining on the side; much improvement in general; bowels regular until recently. Neck stiff for a few days. Roaring sounds in ears, (>) boring in ears (0. S.). Exertion aggravates. Heart sensation of pressure over it. Head creeping sensation on vertex. Sach. l.

Sept. 29. Head “feels so much improved.” Spine nervous; sensation. Gaining in general.

Oct. 14. Silicea cm. Followed by an aggravation.

Dec. 14 and Feb. 11, 1905. Silicea 10m. During this period was general improvement: in strength; cold feet; gain in weight; appetite and stomach improved; constipation; heat flashes; Prominent symptoms. Ears ringing noise. Head, heat in vertex; sensation of drawing back, when waking. Pain in vertex (<) exertion and fatigue, (<) noise. Pain in occiput when laughing. Scalp itching; dryness; biting sensation. Pulsation, when waking. Chilliness; creeping sensation in night. Small of back tired when waking. Pain between scapulae. Must sleep on back. Suspicious of neighbour.

Mar. 22, 1905. Feet heat at night, extends them outside the covers to cool. Hungry about 10 or 11 a. m., must eat. Cold, damp air penetrating. Chilliness and perspiration, when waking at night. Scalp dry scale. Tired easily. Sulph. 10m.

July 5 and Oct. 27, Sulphur 10m. Dec. 9, and Jan. 18. Sulph. 50m. April 16, 1906. SULPH. cm. Record indicates improvement between these reports; steel band sensation absent, not much pain in head; bowels orderly; heat flashes only when tired; enjoys being outdoors. Shooting pain in hip, and r. thigh sometimes sore to touch in bone. One day pain and swelling in r. heel; disappeared, and appeared in r. elbow, then in l. elbow. Head: sensation of a million small things in scalp or in brain in vertex; sometimes it extends to sides of head and front, or in entire crown; (>) by scratching. Whirling sensation in vertex when waking from nap, not in morning. Less of the large spongy sensation. Tired tremor through body, extends to vertex when worried. Soreness sensation in thorax, in walls and l. mammary region. Perspiration followed by chilliness. Eyes redness; sensation as if upper lid covered over the lower; sensation as if eyes turned the wrong way; sensation of sand associated with agglutination in morning; sensation of crack in eyes when trying to sleep.

May 25. Jealous and suspicious; permits her thoughts and speculations to weigh her down. Sulph. was continued until 29th of June, 1907, used twice in mm. and twice in 3 mm. potency, while the following symptoms were the prominent ones reported: Head spongy sensation; heat in vertex, (>) by pressure; sleeps with cold cloth on it; pain in vertex when quickly turning the head; pain in back of neck with headache and when becomes cold. Sore spot. Confusion and dizziness when emotions excited. (<) heat of sun; remains in dark room on hot days. Abdomen pain in region of spleen. Numbness in feet and hands when not lying on them. Urine dark; red particles not difficult to remove from vessel. Perspires easily, lameness or other aggravation from suppression or cooling. Feet hot at night. Sensation: as if nerves twisted off, while reclining; pains in wrists when overtired; numbness in fingers. Nasal dryness; sometimes dripping. Much sneezing. Through all the period general improvement, gain in flesh and decrease of these symptoms.

June 29, 1907. Urine, brick-dust sediment occasions rough surface in vessel. (<) from over-eating; hiccough; cankers in mouth after eating sour food. Stomach, burning sensation after eating strawberries. Calcarea 10m.

Mar. 5, 1908. Cramps in calves of legs when goes from outdoors to house; sitting, or standing, less when walking; at the worst, cramped while lying in bed by (>) continued motion of turning. Head pain in vertex (<) pressure?). (<) by talking of others; company. Perspiration easy, on slight exertion-between mammae and around body, not on face. Had many small, flat warts in childhood. Must wear exactly same weight clothing every day or is chilly. Heat flash followed by perspiration and then chilliness, from worry. Heated from walking. Numb, dead sensation in hand or arm, when wakens. Dreams all night about company. (>) in open air. Thighs stiff from continued sitting. Ferrum-Pic. 10m.

April 19. “Last remedy did everything for her”. Head sore, sensitive spots relieved immediately. Ferrum pic. 10m. May 21, Ferrum pic. 10m.

Aug. 31, Oct. 29, Dec. 15, Ferr-pic. 50m. During this period, steady improvement with the chief symptoms: Fatigue from company; head pressure of a band; pain back of eyes from extreme heat; fullness; sensation as if would become unconscious; each side of center of vertex. Weeps after unpleasant events or if reprimanded or blamed. Cramps from cold, damp weather; small twists all down calf. Wakens at night with cold feet; at times cold to waist. Heart pain from vexation.

Feb. 18 and May 29, 1909. Lecithin 10m.

Aug. to Mar., 1910. Stomach soreness at entrance if drinks little hot tea. Tension on waking. Mouth-sores if eats acid. Craves water as cold as can get it. Milk must be cold. Head sensitive on vertex, nearer front. PHOS. 10m.

May. 6. “Head better than in years.” Phosphorus 10m.

June 10 and July 30, Phosphorus 50m.

Sept. 27, Phosphorus cm. Improvement continuing.

Nov. 7. Abdomen soreness across it, (>) holding it up. (<) reaching; going upstairs.

Heart sometimes darting pains. Nostrils bloody scabs. Murex 10m.

Jan. 21, 1911. Head sensation of animals eating inside, knitting inside. Heat, top and sides. Heavy, top and sides. (<) mental disturbance. Wakens with pain- shooting. Sensation of band. General health better than in ten years. (>) open air; motion. Heat when waking in afternoon. Lycopodium 10m.

April 5. Lycopodium 10m.

Aug. 4 and Nov. 18, Lycopodium 50m.

Jan. 16 and May 3, 1912. Lycopodium cm. Improvement through the two years continued with mild return of symptoms when repetition of remedy needed.

To describe the condition of this patient in the early months, even through the first year or two of her treatment is impossible, so to convey an adequate idea of the disordered condition of her mind. By the hour, she would talk on and on in a monotone, with no infections of voice, detailing her complaints and the annoyances of her family affairs, if one would listen. To reason with her was an absolute impossibility: there was no reasoning faculty apparent in her.

Then other members of the family would report the strange things she did. By the hour they would recite her vagaries-many unthinkable things. She said the family made her so nervous she just must go away from them. At the time her family and her neighbours reported how she would leave the house immediately after an early breakfast and not return until late afternoon, neglecting everything in the house, shirking all responsibility.

Now, two years later, at the last date on the record, not only is she filling her place in the home as a splendid house-keeper and cook, but she is her husband’s accountant and book-keeper, attending to the details of a large business employing dozens of men and many teams. In her husband’s absence she directs the men and keeps oversight of them and their horses with extreme efficiency.

She is devoted to Homoeopathy, interested in its philosophy, and wonders why others are not believers in it.

James Tyler Kent
James Tyler Kent (1849–1916) was an American physician. Prior to his involvement with homeopathy, Kent had practiced conventional medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. He discovered and "converted" to homeopathy as a result of his wife's recovery from a serious ailment using homeopathic methods.
In 1881, Kent accepted a position as professor of anatomy at the Homeopathic College of Missouri, an institution with which he remained affiliated until 1888. In 1890, Kent moved to Pennsylvania to take a position as Dean of Professors at the Post-Graduate Homeopathic Medical School of Philadelphia. In 1897 Kent published his magnum opus, Repertory of the Homœopathic Materia Medica. Kent moved to Chicago in 1903, where he taught at Hahnemann Medical College.