OPIUM-PAPAVER SOMNIFERUM

OPIUM-PAPAVER SOMNIFERUM

(Dried Latex of the Poppy)

Op.

Hahnemann notes the complexity in assessing Opium’s effects compared to other drugs. Opium’s main indications in homeopathy involve the nervous system’s insensibility, depressive drowsy stupor, painlessness, torpor, general sluggishness, and lack of vital reaction, with complaints marked by sopor, painless nature, heavy, stupid sleep, stertorous breathing, sweaty skin, and dark, mahogany-brown face. It is associated with serous apoplexy, venous congestion, lack of sensitivity to medications, and symptoms worsening from heat. Opium diminishes voluntary movements, contracts pupils, depresses intellectual functions, reduces self-control and concentration, enhances imagination, and inhibits all secretions except skin sweat. It is noted for causing unresponsiveness to indicated remedies and diseases originating from fright.

Mind: The patient is apathetic, unconscious, in an apoplectic state, with frightful fancies, daring behavior, and bright, gay moods. The patient cannot comprehend or appreciate suffering, believes they are not at home, and exhibits delirious talking with wide-open eyes.

Head: Symptoms include vertigo, a light-headed feeling in the elderly, dullness, heaviness, stupidity, delirium, vertigo post-fright, pain at the back of the head, a sensation of weight, bursting feeling, complete insensibility, and brain paralysis.

Eyes: Eyes are half-closed, dilated, with pupils insensible and contracted. Conditions like ptosis, staring, and glassy eyes are present.

Face: The face appears red, bloated, swollen, dark, suffused, hot, intoxicated, and besotted, with spasmodic facial twitching, distended veins, hanging lower jaw, and distortion.

Mouth: The mouth is dry, with a black, paralyzed tongue, bloody froth, intense thirst, blubbering lips, and difficulty in articulation and swallowing.

Stomach: Symptoms include vomiting with colic and convulsions, fecal vomiting, incarcerated hernia, hunger without desire to eat.

Abdomen: The abdomen is hard, bloated, and tympanitic with lead colic, and during colic, there is an urge to stool and discharge of hard feces.

Stool: There is obstinate constipation, no desire to go to stool, round hard black balls, spasmodic feces retention, involuntary stool, black, offensive, frothy, with violent rectal pain.

Urinary: Urine is slow to start, with a feeble stream, retention, involuntariness post-fright, loss of bladder power, or sensibility.

Female: Symptoms include suppressed menses from fright, cessation of labor pains with coma and twitching, puerperal convulsions with drowsiness or coma, threatened abortion, and lochia suppression from fright with sopor, and labor-like pains in the uterus with an urge to stool.

Respiratory: Breathing stops on sleep onset, requiring shaking to restart (Grin.), with hoarseness, deep snoring, rattling, stertorous breathing, difficult, intermittent, deep, unequal respiration, chest heat, burning around the heart, and cough with dyspnea and blue face (cyanosis), and hemoptysis.

Back and Extremities: Symptoms include opisthotonos, swollen neck veins, painless paralysis, limb twitching, numbness, jerks, convulsions worsened by light, and cold limbs.

Sleep: There is great drowsiness, heavy, stupid sleep, profound coma, loss of breath on falling asleep (Grin.), coma vigil, bedclothes picking, extreme sleepiness but inability to sleep, sensitivity to distant noises, dreams of animals, hot bed sensation, amorous dreams, shaking chill followed by heat and sweat, thirst only during heat.

Fever: Fever with full, slow pulse, body-wide heat, hot perspiration, stupor, snoring, limb twitching, intense thirst, and sleepiness, with generally low temperature and inclination to stupor.

Skin: The skin is hot, damp, and sweaty with a constant desire to uncover, hot perspiration covering the body except the lower limbs.

Modalities: Symptoms worsen with heat, during and after sleep (Apis, Lach.), and improve with cold things and constant walking.

Relationship: Compare with Apis, Bell., Gels., Nux-m., Morph. (extreme pain sensitivity, twitching, tympanites, severe itching); Codeinum (persistent cough, muscle twitching); Eschscholtzia californica-California poppy (harmless soporific).

Antidote: Acute Opium poisoning: Atropinum and Black coffee. Chronic Opium poisoning: Ip., Nux-v., Passi., Berb. counteract the opium habit.

Non-homeopathic Preparations and Uses: Palliative in great pain, sleeplessness, peritonitis, and to check excessive secretion in diarrhea, diabetes, etc.

Opium (crude): 1 grain.
Laudanum (tincture): 5 to 20 drops.
Extract of Opium: 1⁄4 to 1 grain.
Paregoric: Tinctura Camphora Composita. Each dram contains 1⁄4 grain of Opium (1/30 grain of Morphine). Dose: 1⁄2 to 1 fluid dram for adults, 3 to 5 drops for an infant.
Dover’s Powder: Opium, Ipecac, and Sulphate of Potash (10% each of Opium and Ipecac). Dose: 5 to 15 grains.
Morphine: 1/8 to 1⁄4 grain.
Magendie’s solution: 16 grains to 1 oz., or 5 drops equal to 1/6 grain.
Codein: 1⁄2 to 1 grain.
Apomorphia: 1/20 to 1/10 grain hypodermically.

Dose: Third to thirtieth and 200th potency.