HOMEOPATHIC RESEARCH

-GEORGE VITHOULKAS
Berberis vulgaris is indicated for persons who are pallid and sickly looking. The Berberis patient is pale-faced and appears tired. He has a dirty grayish look, with sunken cheeks, deeply seated eyes surrounded by bluish or blackish-gray circles and a sickly expression. The mouth is dry and sticky, with painful white blisters on the tip of the tongue. He tends to be chilly, with a rheumatic and gouty disposition.
Three grand characteristics may be identified in this remedy: firstly the pains which radiate from a point, involving the joints, kidneys, liver and heart; secondly a bubbling sensation; and lastly the wandering nature of the pains. These characteristics are described in detail below. A prominent feature of this remedy are chills and fever. A common complaint will be coldness of body with hot face, commencing at 11 a.m. ; burning heat in afternoon and becoming worse during the night. The venous system, where Berberis vulgaris acts forcibly, is often involved. You will find swollen varicose veins, itching in varicose veins, network of varicose veins in skin, producing pelvic engorgement and hemorrhoids. This remedy acts upon the urinary organs, when there is a tendency to the formation of calculi and lithaemia. It is also of use in cases of ague with enlargement of the spleen, and spleen pains.
Dr Edward Cranch gives an interesting summary of the therapeutic uses of Berberis vulgaris. He describes the class of case calling for its use as the following: chronic gouty cases, with histories of gravel, old eczema, joint affections, pruritis, stomatitis, and ophthalmia, the special keynote being pain over the right kidney, radiating forward over the crest of the ilium. Pains rapidly change their locality and character.
The three major characteristics of Berberis vulgaris mentioned earlier will now be described in further detail. The prescription of this remedy does not, of course, rely on the presence of all three characteristics in one case.
The first characteristic, a great keynote for Berberis vulgaris, is "radiating pains from a particular point." The radiating pains are accompanied by soreness and lameness in the joints. The patient suffers from pain in a given joint, from which the pain radiates in every direction. For example if the knee joint is affected the pain moves up and down and in every direction; similarly with the finger joint. If the seat of the pain is in the kidneys or renal region, the pain will move to the ureters, into the urethra and bladder, up to the back or to the chest. Pains in the liver will travel downwards in every direction into the abdomen or up to the chest, while pains in the lumbar region will tend to shoot around the abdomen. Stitching and tearing rheumatic pain in the sides extend to arms and occiput. In dysmenorrhea, pains from the abdomen radiate in all directions and, characteristically, down to the thighs.
The second characteristic of note in Berberis vulgaris is a "bubbling" sensation that can be experienced in any part of the body. This bubbling sensation is mixed with pain; it can be experienced as if water were coming up through the skin, or as bubbling pains in joints or in the kidney region. The patient can suffer from bubbling toothache, bubbling in inguinal region, bubbling in urethra while sitting. There may be a bubbling sensation in dorsal region, in scapula, in shoulder, in upper right arm, in thigh or knees, etc. When stooping, there may be a feeling as if the brain would fall forward, with a sensation of bubbling, as if all would prolapse from forehead.
The third important characteristic in this remedy is the wandering nature of pains in the nerves and the nerve sheaths. Little twinges are felt one moment in one place and the next moment in another. Kent gives his own experience of this symptom: "As you sit by the side and talk to a gouty patient - "Ow," he will say. What does he mean by it? He has had one of those twitching pains. The next thing he knows it is in his knee; then it is in his toes; then it is in his head, all over him. In Berberis these twinging, tearing, stitching, burning pains are everywhere, they never remain in one place, but are always moving, and they are not often affected by motion. Whether he moves, or keeps still, they keep coming. In a few instances we have pains aggravated by motion, but a very few in proportion to the many pains in Berberis."
Further characteristics to be found in this remedy include the sensation of a skullcap. The patient has the feeling that his whole scalp is tight, or that he is wearing a hat. This is a rheumatic condition that can be felt in a number of ways; it may be experienced as numbness, enlargement of the skull, or a painful constriction of the whole of the skull. The patient may alternatively have "a feeling in the head as if it were becoming larger," or a peculiar puffy sensation in the head. Another symptom to be considered for Berberis vulgaris is the extension of any pain from the abdominal area to the thighs. Finally, mention should be made of the aggravation of mental symptoms in twilight, with apparitions and visions of imaginary forms.