How Homeopathy Medicines are Selected?

Before we deal with this, let us first understand some basic words and definitions.

Case Taking - The process of initial consultation of a patient with a homeopath in which the patient presents his/her history/complaints to the physician in detail.

Materia Medica - A book which contains information about the action of various homeopathy medicines.

Repertory - A dictionary like index of symptoms. Each symptom is followed by a list of medicines that have produced that symptom during proving.

Drug Proving - A process in which a medicinal substance is given to a group of healthy people and the signs and symptoms thus produced are recorded.

Now we come back to the original question of how the homeopathy medicines are selected.

When a patient comes to a homeopath for the first time, the homeopath takes a detail interview to find out as much as possible about the complaints of the patient as well as about the patient himself. The discussion goes beyond the disease name, to the actual signs and symptoms experienced by the patient, the aggravating and ameliorating factors, accompanying ailments, causative factors, maintaining factors, physical and psychological makeup of the person etc. This whole process of understanding the 'person' who is ill can take many hours (in chronic ailments).

After a homeopath gathers this information he/she uses the repertory to find out which medicines are most indicated for the case. Then the homeopath uses his/her knowledge of Materia Medica to find out the remedy that best fits the case.

This is a long process and requires lot of skill from the homeopath. These days special software are available which help a homeopath in the process of case analysis and repertorization.