POLYCHRESTS

ARG-NIT
ARSENICUM
AURUM
BRYONIA
CALC-CARB
CAUSTICUM
CHINA
IGNATIA
KALI-CARB
LACHESIS
LILIUM-TIG
LYCOPODIUM
MERCURIUS
NAT-MUR
NUX-VOM
PHOSPHOROUS
PLATINA
PULSATILLA
RHUS-TOX
SEPIA
SILICA
STAPHYSAGRIA
SULPHUR
THUJA
VERATRUM

Though Pulsatilla is well-known to all homeopaths, we often have some difficulty in recognizing a Pulsatilla case, especially if we expect always to see the typical blond, blue-eyed, mild and tearful patient. This is true because greater psychological "sophistication" teaches people to compensate or hide their natural tendencies. Also, the descriptions below may not apply to a case which is ill mainly on the physical level who has not developed the typical personality of the remedy.
<<Softness.>> The central essence of Pulsatilla is "changeability with softness". It is primarily a feminine remedy. When a man needs Pulsatilla, he is generally a soft, gentle type of man. The Pulsatilla patient requires strong support from those around her. The patient is easily dominated or influenced. There is often a strong family figure or a strong religious figure or teacher in the patient's life. She needs support and reassurance. The patient is also deeply emotional, sentimental and sympathetic.
<<Shyness.>> Although the typical Pulsatilla type makes excellent contact with others, there is often an initial shyness or bashfulness. The patient blushes easily and feels embarrassed from slight causes. Yet there is something flirtatious about this timidity which telegraphs the strong desire for affection and reassurance.
<<Weeping.>> One of the main characteristics of the Pulsatilla patient is the ease with which she weeps. She frequently weeps in the office when telling about her problems. She also weeps during any confrontation. The weeping often is soft and tender. The patient is unselfconscious in her desire for and acceptance of comforting and consolation.
<<Consolation.>> There is often a strong desire for tenderness and reassurance in the typical Pulsatilla patient. The family may note that the patient often asks, "Do you love me?" or "Tell me that you love me." This dependency will also be projected on to the prescriber.
<<Changeability.>> The patient is very emotional yet the moods are very changeable. She is soft and weepy one moment and irritable the next. Many prescribers early in their career are surprised to find how irritable the Pulsatilla patient can become. This occurs generally if the patient needs attention and feels she is deprived. There can also be a stubbornness in Pulsatilla, especially regarding her security.
<<Dogmatism.>> If the patient is dependent upon a particular religious system, she may rigidly defend this as the only correct system and appears anything but yielding. In fact she may be a fanatic toward this security system, yet internally this fanaticism is based upon the need for support. The tendency for rigid thinking is also reflected in fixed ideas that she has sinned, that sex is sinful - "puritanical" ideas. In the end stage Pulsatilla can go into deeply apathetic states, senility or even catatonia.
<<Children.>>The typical Pulsatilla child is shy and clings to the mother. She makes good contact with the prescriber from the safety of her mother's lap. She is vulnerable to other children, easily bullied. She craves attention and affection. Often the mother will reveal that the child comes to sit on her lap at any opportunity and often asks the mother, "Mommy, do you love me?" Yet she can be pouting and irritable at other times. Often the parents complain that the child comes in to their bedroom at night to sleep.
<<Physical.>>The physical complaints are characterized by changeability of the condition. The patient himself may state that, "no two stools" or "no two periods" are the same. However, as Nancy Herrick of the Hahnemann Clinic has taught, often the prescriber finds this characteristic after a frustrating interview during which the patient finds difficulty describing her symptoms because, "I just can't seem to find a pattern!" This lack of a pattern often indicates a changeability.
There are two main spheres of action of Pulsatilla on the physical plane: the hormonal system and the circulation. The hormonal disturbances are particularly strong in the female cycle. Pulsatilla is one of the main remedies for almost all forms of menstrual problems, from premenstrual syndrome to amenorrhea to menopausal hot flashes. It is also one of the most important remedies in pregnancy related disorders.
In the circulatory sphere, Pulsatilla patients are often plethoric and congested. Varicosities, flushing and typically rosy cheeks, congestive type headaches, engorged conjunctiva, etc., point to the sluggish and overfilled vasculature. Thus, anything which cools the body core will ameliorate and anything which raises the body heat will aggravate the patient.

Mind.
SOFT, TIMID, EASILY INFLUENCED AND DEPENDENT PATIENTS.
OPEN AND MALLEABLE. EASILY INFLUENCED.
WEEPS EASILY.
WEEPS IN INTERVIEW TELLING HER PROBLEMS (Sep, Med, Staph).
<<Sadness>>, worse in warm room, worse before the menses, worse evening, better open air.
<<Changeable moods.>>
<<Feels forsaken.>>
ASKS MOTHER OR SPOUSE, "DO YOU LOVE ME?"
DESIRES AND AMELIORATED BY CONSOLATION.
Fears: Heights. Claustrophobia. Insanity. Dark. Robbers. Mirrors.
Fanatic or rigid religious ideas; puritanical; excessive praying.
Irritability, worse before menses.
Jealousy.
Disgust; has a visceral response to events or objects.

General.
<<Appearance: Often, but by no means exclusively blond, red-cheeked, red lips, plump, phlegmatic individuals.>>
<<Warm-blooded and aggravated by heat.>>
<<General aggravation from the sun.>>
CRAVES AND AMELIORATED BY OPEN AIR OR IN BREEZES.
GENERAL AMELIORATION WALKING SLOWLY IN THE OPEN AIR.
GENERAL AGGRAVATION AT TWILIGHT OR IN THE EVENING. Also worse at 2 PM or 4 PM.
<<General amelioration from cool, crisp weather.>>
General amelioration from cold bathing.
General aggravation from getting the feet wet.
GENERAL AGGRAVATION FROM FATTY OR RICH FOODS, from pork, from bread.
<<Fainting from warm or stuffy rooms>>, from emotions, from menses.
<<General aggravation during pregnancy, at menopause, before or during menses, from suppressed menses.>>
Generally worse after measles.
Obesity in some cases.
One-sided perspiration.
Chills before or during menses.
Acutes.
Otitis media with pains which wake the child, she cries and needs comfort but without the anger of Chamomilla.
Upper respiratory infection or influenza with bland coryza, sneezing, and conjunctivitis.
Night-time coughs of children.
Cystitis. Pyelonephritis.
Hay fever, marked sneezing and red and itchy eyes.
Measles. Mumps. Chicken pox.
Mastitis.

Head.
Vertigo, worse looking upward, worse menses, better lying down.
<<Headaches, often migraines, worse at the end of the menstrual flow.>>
Headaches, worse menopause, worse heat, worse sun, worse exertion, worse after emotional stresses.
Headaches better open air, cold or cold applications, better pressure.
Headaches are often pulsating or pressing outwards.
Red cheeks, blushes easily. Flushes of heat to the face.
Mumps; parotitis.
Hirsutism.
Facial neuralgia.
Tooth pain, better from cold, worse heat or warm food.
DRY MOUTH BUT NO THIRST.

Nose.
<<Hay fever>>, coryza, sneezing often worse in open air, worse evening, worse warm room.
<<Bland and often greenish nasal discharge.>>
Chronic nasal obstruction.

Eyes.
<<Conjunctivitis,>> allergic or infective.
Blocked lacrimal ducts of infants (Sil).
Greenish discharge from the eyes.
<<Itching, lacrimation, and pain in eye, better cold application.>>

Ears.
ACUTE AND CHRONIC OTITIS MEDIA.
<<Ear pain, often worse at night, worse heat; pulsating pain.>>
Discharges from the ears. "Glue ear".
Hearing diminished from otitis media.

Gastro-intestinal.
Craves: BUTTER. CREAM AND WHIPPED-CREAM. CHEESE. Sweets. <<Ice cream. Cold food. Peanut butter.>> Hard-boiled eggs.
Aversion: FAT. Butter. Warm food. PORK.
Indigestion from fats and rich foods, ice cream, pork.
Bloating and abdominal distension.
Nausea and vomiting from headache.
Nausea of pregnancy.
THIRSTLESS.
Diarrhea in children.
Hemorrhoids.

Urinary and Sexual Organs.
<<Bladder pain, worse at the end of urination, worse if trying to retain urine.>>
Involuntary urination, worse in pregnancy, worse with coughing.
Prostatitis. Prostatic hypertrophy.
Orchitis, epididymitis, worse left side, worse suppressed gonorrhea, worse mumps.
Sexual energy is generally high, even excessive in some cases. In women there is more often an emphasis on emotional connection rather than sex. There may be an aversion to sex based on strongly held moral or religious beliefs. Because of the need for deep connection, preferences may be toward homosexuality.
Labor delayed and ineffectual.
Malpresentation; may help to turn fetus even in last days of gestation.
<<Menses easily suppressed. Amenorrhea.>> Also metrorrhagia.
<<Menses short duration.>>
MENSES IRREGULAR. MENSTRUAL FLOW CHANGEABLE.
<<Marked dysmenorrhea>> beginning at puberty. Endometriosis.
Uterine prolapse.

Chest.
<<Asthma, often allergic asthma.>>
<<Dyspnea or oppression in the chest, worse lying, worse evening and night, worse from taking a cold>>, worse suppressed eruptions, worse emotions, worse heavy exertion, worse warm room, better sitting, better open air.
<<Cough at night in bed, preventing or interrupting sleep, >>ESPECIALLY IN CHILDREN. BRONCHITIS.
Palpitations, worse night in bed, worse lying on the left side.
Galactorrhea. Mastitis. Fibrocystic breast disease.

Back.
SENSATION OF COLD WATER POURED ON THE BACK.
Back pain before menses, in labor, or from suppressed menses.

Extremities.
<<Wandering arthritis.>>
<<Pains worse first motion but better from moving.>>
<<Pains worse heat and better cold.>>
<<Pains in the heels.>>
Arthritic pains especially hips and knees.
Chilblains.
Eczema with itching worse at night and worse from heat.
Skin ulcers. Eczema. Psoriasis.
<<Varices>>, worse pregnancy, better cold.
<<Heat in the feet and must put them out of the covers.>>

Sleep.
SLEEPS ON ABDOMEN OR ON THE BACK WITH THE ARMS RAISED OVER THE HEAD.
SLEEP DISTURBED BY A PARTICULAR SONG OR PHRASE OF A SONG RUNNING THROUGH HIS HEAD.

Clinical.
Allergy. Amenorrhea. Anxiety. Arthritis. Asthma. Bronchitis. Conjunctivitis. Connective tissue disease. Cough. Cystitis. Dementia. Depression. Dysmenorrhea. Eczema. Endometriosis. Food allergy. Gastritis. Headache. Labor. Menstrual disorders. Menopause. Metrorrhagia. Migraine. Mumps. Obstructed lacrimal duct. Orchitis. Otitis Media. Pregnancy. Premenstrual syndrome. Prostatitis. Psoriasis. Rhinitis. Sarcoidosis. Sinusitis. Systemic lupus. Urethral stricture. Urethritis. Urticaria. Uterine prolapse. Varices. Vertigo.

Relationship.
Complementaries.
Sil. Lyc. Kali-S. Fl-Ac. Tub. Calc.
Comparisons.
Phos - Open, better consolation, dependent, craves ice cream and cold foods, high sexual interest, respiratory troubles.
Sulph - Warm, better cold, red lips and cheeks, puts feet out of covers, worse evening in bed.
Arg-N - Open and emotional, warm and better cold, desires ice cream, averse to pork, indigestion.
Merc - Otitis, craves bread and butter, worse at night, disgust.
Kali-S - Asthma and allergy, worse when over-heated, night-time cough, irritable.
Sep. Staph. Bar-C. Lyc. Med. Caps.