Acute & Chronic prescribing in Homeopathy.

People often get confused as to the difference of acute & chronic prescribing in homeopathy & they are quite different.

An acute refers to conditions that occur suddenly and generally have a short duration.  Examples include the common cold, flu, injuries and infections.  These ailments can be quite severe and often have a rapid onset, they can often resolve on their own with a healthy immune system within a few days to a few weeks. Homeopathic remedies given in the early stages of acute illness can be incredibly effective.  

Acute conditions that continue or repeat often can be a sign that this may have become a more chronic state and that your general immune system needs a boost. In fact up to 85% of acute conditions have their origin in a chronic issue.

Chronic ailments are conditions that persist over a longer period typically more than a month, these may be characterised by a slow onset & a prolonged duration. These conditions may appear less severe than acute ailments, but they often significantly impact a persons quality of life. Examples of chronic ailments include diabetes, asthma, eczema, arthritis, heart disease, IBS, Crohns, Coeliac disease etc as well as chronic pain conditions.  Some acute infections such as bronchitis or covid may also be termed chronic over time as they tend to weaken the lungs & make it more susceptible to repeat infections.  

When prescribing homeopathic remedies for acute ailments, being a new infection or ailment its fairly straightforward to prescribe by looking at the individual symptoms & how the person feels/experiences these personally, this helps guide us to the most similar remedies for the state.  Once the closest matching remedy is given one should see overall improvement either gradually or quickly, this may be as small as the person falling asleep for a while & waking feeling some improvement, or a rapid reduction in the severity of the symptoms over the coming hours, both are a good sign & mean the body is starting to heal itself. 

Acute dosing of homeopathic remedies is generally to give a dose of the most well matched remedy, then wait & if no change this can be repeated every 1-2 hours up to 3 doses.  If you see improvement, stop dosing.  Only resume if symptoms improve for a time then worsen again.  If theres no change at all after the 2nd dose, it’s possible the remedy is not the correct match for the state so if this happens look at the next likely remedy to see if that seems a better one, if so dose in the same way.

With chronic prescribing for a condition that someone has had for a longer period of time, this should be done by a qualified homeopath as its important to understand the persons whole health state & journey they’ve had to the current one of ill health.  Also that the symptoms they may have now, may be either mediated/changed either from medication or have developed from the original symptoms to a deeper pathology state. 

It’s therefore vital in chronic prescribing to look at the history of the persons health to understand how they’ve arrived in the current state as well as how the symptoms feel for them personally & also their personal preferences which all help in finding appropriate remedies.  Homeopaths also look at the persons family medical history to determine whether there are any family susceptibilities to certain illnesses (Miasms). All this extra information provides a deeper insight to the persons state & gives indications for remedies. 

As chronic conditions can also have underlying causes that may be complex & have developed over time, these often need a series of remedies over a period of time to try and resolve the imbalance(s) & or may require multi-disciplinary approaches in managing symptoms. 

Chronic prescribing is generally more complex for this reason, but is tailored to the individual need, it may be daily, weekly or monthly dosing, depending on the person, the condition and the remedies chosen.

If you have a chronic condition & want to know how homeopathy can help you, please get in touch with me & book a free 15min phone or video call. Or if you would like to book a first consultation click here.