Sir, Do You Prescribe Rare Remedies?

[Amit Karkare]

An inquisitive student was asking me this question, as a part of an interview she was conducting before joining my clinic as a learner. That’s a very common experience now days. I remember, not more than 10 years back when I had just passed out, me and my colleagues were interested in learning whatever the physician could teach us from his busy clinic hours, but today’s learners are quite selective, and they have to be! They are much more oriented and aware about homeopathic schools, methods and techniques than what we were even after couple of years of practice.

But what exactly are RARE remedies?

Dictionary gives the meaning of the word ‘Rare’ as – ‘Not widely known; especially valued for its uncommonness’ or ‘recurring only at long intervals’. If I try to apply these definitions to homeopathic practice, I find each and every homeopath has got his own repertoire of medicines that he plays with.

The point I want to put forth here is – do we talk about rare remedies for the faculty of homeopaths or for the individual? I think what counts the most is the later. And I thoroughly would like to prescribe rare remedies, the remedies that have been prescribed rarely by me till now, due to my ignorance and lack of knowledge about them. It takes some hard case that makes me to solve it in the learnt protocols, to find some odd remedy emerging from the process, leading to a rare remedy prescription.

I have met my colleagues who have prescribed more ‘calcarea silcatas’ than ‘pulsatillas’. I have yet to unfold the mystery behind numerous remedial forces, by rising against my blocks. Yet to discover the scope of known remedies in its true sense.

Thus, my dear student (?), YES, I would like to prescribe rare remedies. Will you help me to reach them by questioning my prescriptions? Would you like to be my teacher?

[Nira Andharia]

Very true!

[Debby Bruck]

Very interesting observation.

[Dr Muhammed Rafeeque]

Thank you Dr Jonathan for that valuable comment.

[Jonathan Shore MD]

My idea here is that we need to use the structure of the natural world as a guide. There is no doubt that certain phenomena are much more common, occur more widely, and thus are not rare in the everyday life of people.
By the same reasoning there are certain remedies which follow the same pattern - the polychrests follow this pattern not because we know more about them but rather because they occur so commonly we know much more about them.

Thus the prescription for an individual whose life experiences are very unusual will most likely be found in a range of substances which in themselves are unusual.

This is not a law, just a general principal which I have found useful over the years.

[Veeraraghavan A.R.]

Most of the Rare remedies ( not widely proscribed) are not yet properly proved. So most of the Homoeopathy are not sure enough about their action. So they became "Rare".

[Dr Muhammed Rafeeque]

Thanks for the posting. Here is my post on the same subject. So Called Rare Remedies

[Dr Rajneesh Kumar Sharma MD(Hom)]

Any remedy becomes rare if one has deficient knowledge about it. Any remedy becomes fast running when he becomes familiar with it.

The only thing which matters is the similimum.