Gibson Miller’s Chart of Duration of Remedies
Duration of Action of Remedies
Dear Friends,
In the back of Kent’s book, Repertory of the Homoeopathic Materia Medica with Word Index, he was a very interesting chart called Relationship of Remedies with Duration of Action. This chart was compiled by R. Gibson Miller and included in Kent’s repertory. The chart has six categories:
Remedy
Complement
Remedies that Follow Well
Inimicals
Antidotes
Duration
All of these categories are interesting, but the one I want to focus on today is the last one: Duration.
I believe this is a subject that has been neglected, downplayed, or dismissed in homeopathy in modern times, but someone took the trouble to think about it in the past, and perhaps we should think about it as well. What makes this category in the chart less useful is the fact that the potency used is not mentioned. I am going to list some of the most commonly used homeopathic acute and antipsoric remedies below and see if we can draw any conclusions or see a pattern. For many remedies no information is included in this category. Here goes.
Acidum nitricum 40 – 60 days
Acidum phosphoricum 40 days
Allium cepa 1 day
Aloe socotrina 30 – 40 days
Antimonium crudum 40 days
Antimonium tartaricum 20 – 30 days
Argentum nitricum 30 days
Arnica montana 6 – 10 days
Arsenicum album 60 – 90 days
Aurum metallicum 50 – 60 days
Baryta carb 40 days
Belladonna 1 – 7 days
Berberis vulgaris 20 – 30 days
Bryonia alba 7 – 21 days
Cactus grandiflora 7 – 10 days
Calcarea carbonica 60 days
Cina 14 – 20 days
Cocculus indicus 30 days
Coffee cruda 1 – 7 days
Colchicum autumnale 14 – 20 days
Colocynthis 1 – 7 days
Conium maculatum 30 – 50 days
Cuprum metallicum 40 – 50 days
Digitalis purpurea 40 – 50 days
Dulcamara 30 days
Eupatorium perfoliatum 1 – 7 days
Gelsemium sempervirens 30 days
Hepar calcaarea sulphuris 40 – 50 days
Hypericum perfoliatum 1 – 7 days
Ignatia amara 9 days
Ipecacuanha 7 – 10 days
Kali carbonicum 40 – 50 days
Lachesis muta 30 – 40 days
Ledum palustre 30 days
Lilium tigrinum 14 – 20 days
Lycopodium clavatum 40 – 50 days
Magnesium carbonicm 40 – 50 days
Mercurius vivus 30 – 40 days
Moschus 1 day
Nux vomica 1 – 7 days
Opium 7 days
Phosphorous 40 days
Platina 35 – 40 days
Plumbum met. 20- 30 days
Podophyllum 30 days
Psorinum 30 – 40 days
Pulsatilla 40 days
Rheum 2 – 3 days
Rhus toxicodendron 1 – 7 days
Ruta graveolens 30 days
Sambucus nigra 1 day
Sepia 40 – 50 days
Silica 40 – 60 days
Spongia tosta 20 – 30 days
Staphysagria 20 – 30 days
Sulphur 40 – 60 days
Thuja occidentalis 60 days
Veratrum album 20 – 30 days
Zincum metallicum 30 – 40 days
It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out how interesting this chart is, and how important this knowledge can be when making a prescription. As homeopaths if we see a client once a month, or once quarterly, and send them off with a single dose of a remedy, then we have to have an idea of how long that remedy is expected to hold. We won’t be surprised if we prescribed Nux vomica 30C and two weeks later the client says I felt great the first week, but I haven’t felt as good the second week, or I have relapsed.
Ordinarily, as the homeopath, we may say something like, “You have just hit the aggravation period on the remedy. Soon after the aggravation passes, you will notice an improvement in your symptoms.”
After studying this chart, I wonder if that is a fair thing to say. Maybe the Nux vomica 30C has exhausted its action and it is time for a repetition of the remedy, evidenced by a relapse of the symptoms.
Understanding this chart can help us determine if this is a relapse, or a call for a repetition of the remedy.
Studying this chart it is notable that our acute remedies often have short duration spans, but not always.
Allium cepa 1 day
Belladonna 1 – 7 days
Bryonia alba 7 – 21 days
Coffee cruda 1 – 7 days
Colocynthis 1 – 7 days
Ignatia amara 9 days
Nux vomica 1 – 7 days
Opium 7 days
Rhus toxicodendron 1 – 7 days
On the other hand some of our flu remedies have longer duration spans, like:
Gelsemium sempervirens 30 days
It is noteworthy that our common deep acting antipsoric remedies do have longer hold times according to this chart:
Arsenicum album 60 – 90 days
Aurum metallicum 50 – 60 days
Calcarea carbonica 60 days
Conium maculatum 30 – 50 days
Cuprum metallicum 40 – 50 days
Digitalis purpurea 40 – 50 days
Lycopodium clavatum 40 – 50 days
Magnesium carbonicm 40 – 50 days
Pulsatilla 40 days
Sepia 40 – 50 days
Silica 40 – 60 days
Sulphur 40 – 60 days
Thuja occidentalis 60 days
Anyway friends this is food for thought, and hopefully with this knowledge people who prescribe remedies will have clearer expectations about the duration of action of the remedy and when it seems that repetition of the remedy would be reasonable.
This chart should be taken with a grain of salt, because I have seen that it is not uncommon for a deep acting constitutional remedy to hold 6, 8, 12 months and longer. A single dose of any remedy can remove a layer. Our prescriptions should be individualized, including when it is time to repeat a remedy.
My hope is that homeopathy will rise to prominence in the United States, and the remedy names I have just listed will become common household names that everyone is familiar with. Let’s start bringing about a revival of the heydays of homeopathy when most housewives had a homeopathic remedy kit at home, and Dr. Constantine Hering’s book, The Domestic Physician by their bedside. That way they could look up their child’s symptoms and see what remedy they needed to give to dry their child’s tears and bring back the laughter. If they couldn’t figure it out themselves, they could call in the doctor, who would be knowledgeable about homeopathy and carried remedies in his/her black bag.
Wishing you health and happiness,
Deborah Olenev CCH RSHom (NA)
