Potency Selection in Homeopathy
While advancing in the field of homeopathy, the most common problem among homeopaths starting to care for new patients is which potency remedy should be given. Frankly, this was a subject of differing opinions among homeopaths even during Hahnemann’s lifetime. some advocated the use of fortified remedies, while others advocated the use of raw doses based on Similia. This topic is quite a long one and let’s see together how many homeopaths in history and today behave in potency selection…
Since the discovery of homeopathy, all homeopaths have remained divided over the question of potency selection, and even 160 years after Hahnemann’s death, the question of potency selection is still open-ended. Let’s take a look at the views of some of the leading homeopaths of different eras.
The term posology is derived from the Greek words “posos” meaning “how much” and “logos” meaning “study”. Posology in homeopathy means the doctrine of drug dosage. A homeopathic dose means repetition with the strength, amount and form of the medicine. We will only focus on the potency selection part of Posology as it is such a long topic to research.
Before trying to learn more about potential selection, let’s summarize what potentials are available to a homeopath.
The Centecimal Scale, developed by Hahnemann, is denoted by the numerical representation of potency or the number followed by the C or CH suffix, for example 30C or 20C.
Decimal Scale developed by Hering and denoted by the suffix X after the number, for example 200x.
50 Millesimal or LM Scale – Also known as Quinquagintamillesimal or Q potencies. Hahnemann developed this scale in the last years of his life.
Potency can be broadly classified as low, medium and high. Low potency ranges from Q to 12C, Medium Potency from 12C to 200C, and higher potencies from 200C to DM, MM, DMM.
It is believed that higher potencies were first prepared by Korsakoff in 1834, but after 1844 Jenichen came into popular use with higher potencies.
Returning now to the question of potency selection, we will begin to explore the views of famous homeopaths of various eras. It would be appropriate to begin our tour with Hahnemann himself, the person who conceived the homeopathic potencies.
Hahnemann first began using ‘similar’ drugs around 1790 and began experimenting with gradual reductions in dosage 8 years later. As a doctor, he was clearly more and more satisfied with the results of using dynamized drugs, as he continued to use them instead of material doses until the end of his long life.
He began his first experiments with dose reduction in 1798. This includes 2x, 4x and 2c. According to research by Peter Morrel, in 1799 Hahnemann began to further reduce the dose using 5x, 6x, 3c and 8x. It starts using 10x in 1800, and 12c appears for the first time in 1803. In 1805, the 18th percentile dilution emerged that would prove one of the most consistent favorite potencies he has used throughout his long career. In 1816, 30c first appeared, and it remains the most widely used and most recommended potency of all time.
Other developments include the first bet of 6c in 1819 and the first bet of 60c in 1824. He first mentions Smell as a drug delivery device in 1830, and it remained a very popular method with him until the end of his life. Finally, in 1838, LM potencies first appeared. Toward the end of her life she was moving more and more towards the use of LM potencies but still giving Centesimal potencies to most of her patients.
It is known that during Hahnemann’s lifetime, he usually only used potencies up to 30C. However, Farrington cites that Madam Hahnemann said she used the 200th and 1000th when necessary. However, he seems to have used the 1000th only once.
Beyond Hahnemann
Boenninghausen, a contemporary of Hahnemann, was clearly in favor of high potencies. He has written many articles promoting high potentials and listed many advantages such as:
Its sphere of influence constantly expands with high potentials, thus accelerating treatment in chronic ailments,
In acute diseases, the effect appears faster and
They act despite common sense on the diet.
TF Allen, Richard Hughes, Dr. Wilson, Dr. Henry Dearborn, JH Clarke, Dr. Homeopaths like George Royal, Boericke, Pierce, Edgar were in favor of low potencies and advised the same in most cases. On the other hand, homeopaths such as Boenninghausen, Hering, Lippe, Guernsey, Raue, Dunham, HC Allen, Kent, Boger, Nash, Roberts all favored medium and high potencies. To this list we can add Bell, Beronville, Borland, Stuart Close, Curie, Dewey, Gross, Fincke, Swan, Skinner, Jenichen, Ghose, Grauvogl, Hubbard, Sir John Weir, Margaret Tyler, Pulford, Templeton, Yingling. , Waffensmith, PP Wells and Pierre Schmidt etc. All these homeopaths have used the higher potencies with great success.
Among contemporary homeopaths, George Vithoulkas lays out the following guidelines in his work “The Science of Homeopathy”:
“Weakened patients, elderly people, or very hypersensitive individuals should initially be given potencies ranging from roughly 12 X to 200. This is because higher potencies can overstimulate the weakened defense mechanism, resulting in unnecessary strong exacerbations. The principle applies particularly to patients known to have specific pathology at the physical level.
Hypersensitive patients …are very reactive to both low and high potencies. As a result, it is better to limit the first prescription to 30 or 200 in such patients.
Children suffering from severe problems should usually be given low potency. … Potency greater than 200 should not be given to cases with known malignancies.
If a case appears relatively curable and free of physical pathology, higher initial potencies ranging from 30 to CM may be attempted. The basic guiding principle here is the degree of certainty the homeopath has about the remedy.
Drugs such as Lachesis, Aurum and Nosodes have a strong tendency towards physical pathology. Therefore, it should generally be limited to lower potencies (30 or 200) unless the individual case can be shown to be completely free of physical pathology.
It is best not to give potency less than 200 in children with acute conditions … If the patient is elderly, chronically debilitated, or severely debilitated by acute illness, 200 potency is preferred for initial prescription.”
Rajan Sankaran writes: “The choice of potency depends on the intensity, clarity and spontaneity of the expressed symptoms, especially the specific symptoms that reflect the individuality of the person. Consider the following:
A patient comes and says, “I don’t know why, but most of the time I feel like I’m poor, looking like a beggar, and wearing ragged clothes.”
Here we have an intense, clear and spontaneous expression. In such a case, I would almost always give a high potency (maybe 10M); pathology etc. All other matters will be secondary.
Of course, the effect also depends on the closeness (similarity) of the remedy to the case. The patient may be clear about his symptoms, expressing it intensely and spontaneously, but the remedy chosen may not reflect this feeling as intensely or clearly. In such a case, the effect will depend on the extent to which the chosen drug expresses the patient’s feelings.”
Rajan Sankaran is also known to use LM potencies when the patient is hypersensitive. So, despite the differences in potency selection guidelines, we find that most modern homeopaths have some agreement on the factors that affect potency.
Among them;
Certainty of the chosen drug
The kingdom of medicine (source)
Patient’s age
Patient’s gender
Patient’s occupation
Patient’s sensitivity
Patient’s vitality
The nature of the patient
Type of disorder – Functional or Pathological.
Severity of Pathology
Acute or chronic nature of the disease
Clarity and abundance of mental symptoms
Type of response desired – palliation or therapy
level of proof
The nature of the drug
patient’s miasmasimilarity in addition to local symptoms, medium or high potencies may be preferred. He also says that the more acute the disease, the higher the potency.
Clarke says that lower dilutions from 1C to 3C would be most beneficial for ordinary application in acute illness. Higher dilutions will be required for chronic diseases.
Close gives the following aspects affecting dose selection –
The greater the characteristic symptoms of the drug in the case, the higher the sensitivity to the drug and the required effect.
Age: medium and higher potencies for kids
Higher potencies for sensitive, intelligent individuals.
Higher potencies for intellectuals or established professionals and those exposed to excitement or the continued influence of drugs.
Even crude drugs may be necessary in terminal conditions. Also, “Different potencies behave differently under different circumstances, in different situations and individuals. All may be necessary. No potency, high or low, can always meet the requirements of all cases.”
Curie thinks that low dilutions should be preferred in acute diseases, but higher dilutions promise more success in chronic diseases.
Edgar reports that he has successfully treated cases with low dilutions and parent tinctures for twenty-five years.
Gentry thinks that for progressive diseases such as fever and contagion, the remedies should be given at medium or low potency.
Blackie reports that in cases of true organic change due to infective causes, a high impact can clear them.
Grauvogl lists some rules for the use of potencies;
If we need to act on one piece against a single qualitative cause, we better use low dilutions, as with bleeding before or after birth.
At high potencies, the symptoms pass silently without a trace.
When dealing with reduction or oxidation or vice versa process change, we should use low dilutions.
However, high potencies are specified to resolve the retention process.
Nutritional drugs work better at low dilutions, functional drugs work better at higher dilutions.
A chronic case is best treated with high potencies, especially when it relies on retention in a carbon-nitrogenoid structure.
Kent was not only the representative of medium and high potency, but also the pioneer of the high potency generation. Thanks to his students, high potencies became fashionable in England. Kent is still considered the most influential person among the homeopathic community in the use of high potencies. Kent wrote:
“After 30 years of careful observation and the use of various potencies, it is possible to establish the following rules: Every doctor should master the 30th, 200th, 1M, 10M, 50M, CM, DM and MM potencies. …from 30 to 10M, the healing potencies will be found to be most beneficial to very sensitive women and children. All from 10M to MM are useful for ordinary chronic diseases in people who are not very sensitive. In acute diseases, 1M and 10M are most beneficial. In sensitive women and children it is good to give 30th and 200th first, then 1M (and 10M) can be used similarly, allowing the patient to recover overall. In people with chronic disease and not very sensitive, it can be used before 10M and continue unchanged as long as healing continues;
He also writes: “Once simlimum is found, the remedy will act as a curative in a range of effects. If the remedy is partially similar, it acts at one or two potencies, and then the symptoms change and a new drug is needed.”
Nash was also strongly in favor of medium and high potencies.
Pulford writes: “Low potency simply pacifies susceptibility (palliation or suppression) …Low curative drugs are in the 30X to CC (200th) potency range, especially for acute cases that are not rooted in or part of a deep chronic illness. Moderate curative drugs range from CC to 10M potencies in subacute cases, all based on a deeper dyscrasia. Higher potencies for chronic treatable cases range from 10 million and above.”
Roberts advises that if the symptoms are very similar, we can go as high as we want. The less certain we are of our similarity, the lower our power. As a rule, medium or high potencies can be dangerous when there is pathology.
Sir John Weir, quoting from his 35 years of experience, is concerned with physical illness, external conditions, skin conditions, etc. It says that low potencies should be used for When mental symptoms are present, high potencies are needed.
Constantine Hering says: “If the case symptoms are generally more similar to the primary symptoms of the drug, then they advocate lower potencies, but rather higher potencies due to greater resemblance to later effects (secondary effect).”
Fergie Woods states that high potencies can be aggravated in sensitive patients. A lower potency is preferred in cases of organic changes. Especially in Phosphorus and Lachesis cases it usually only started with the 12th. It also speaks to the view that high potencies act for a longer period of time only because we give high potencies when we are more certain of the similium.
This remarkable homeopathic obstetrician Yingling writes: “There is no doubt that rough or very low potency will cure when homeopathic to the disease state. Experience undoubtedly teaches and proves this. But experience fully and completely proves and establishes that higher and higher forces act more quickly and efficiently and will cure especially chronic diseases, cases where the raw material cannot touch. It is wrong to assume that high potencies are superior in the treatment of chronic cases and are not effective in the acute stages of the disease. My experience proves that higher potencies are more reliable and efficient in acute cases and will stop or limit disease to a few days, whereas crude oil may take days or weeks to do the same.”
Hubbard says that high potentials should be used for diseases of psychic origin. Functional diseases with subjective symptoms also respond well to high potencies. Acute disease needs high potencies even with pathological changes, whereas medium or low potencies are preferred in acute crises of chronic diseases such as cardiac asthma. In chronic cases it is safe to start with 200C. He prefers high potencies in situations with pronounced mental symptoms. He also writes: “High potentials are indicated in acute diseases, in very serious diseases in which the struggle for survival is active; also, very high potencies cause problems in cases where the hopeless disease is in the last stage of chronic disease. In chronically untreatable cases, low or medium potencies are appropriate unless viability is very good and the pathology is not yet very extreme.”
He also writes: “The degree of sensitivity of your patient also influences the choice of potency. Some people are hypersensitive (often due to inappropriate homeopathic treatment) and will attest to any remedy you give them; therefore, they require medium or low potency. Other patients are very sluggish (often.
The guidelines by Hubbard, P. Sankaran, Vithoulkas, and Rajan more or less summarize the clinical approach a person should have for potency selection. The only problem we see these days is that the vast majority of homeopaths practice with a very limited range of potential. Main tinctures and 1x, 2x etc. There seems to be some hesitation in using very low potencies like CM, MM, DMM and also most people are not ready to try very high potencies like CM, MM, DMM. Therefore, often a correctly chosen medicine does not give the desired result, and the homeopath often replaces the medicine, rather than changing the potency.
A homeopath should be open to using all the potentials available to him. Certainty in the choice of potential grows with experience. If you are sure of your choice of remedy and the desired action is not there, try changing the strength to higher or lower before deciding to change the drug. You cannot be flexible in choosing solutions; A remedy for treatment should be similar, but you can be flexible in choosing potency. A particular case may respond to more than one potency of the same drug. When choosing strength, remember Hahnemann’s words that an ideal treatment should be quick, gentle, and lasting. Things will be easier after that.