The most important aspect of a homeopathic case taking is getting to the core essence of the patient, individualizing his case and eliciting the most important peculiar characteristic symptoms of the patient. Peculiar, rare, queer & strange symptoms are all that homeopaths look for in an ideal case history. The case becomes even more valuable when you are able to obtain the most seemingly unimportant symptoms for the patient, yet vital to the homeopath which are the concomitants.
Concomitants were first introduced by Dr. Von Boenninghausen and he placed their importance while case taking, repertorization and remedy selection. Concomitants are those symptoms that occur along with the main problem but usually seem less significant to the patient. A concomitant may have nothing to do with the main symptom; however, since it accompanies the main problem it helps to fill out the picture of an indicated remedy. The symptoms that differ from the common picture are the ones most expressive of the individual and hence of utmost important to finding the right remedy.
For example, influenza has a common symptom picture of fever, runny nose, and headache; while one patient may experience dry mouth, another may experience leg pain while other may have bursts of violent anger. All these ancillary symptoms are known as concomitants.
The Boger-Boenninghausen Characteristics Repertory is a mammoth work by Dr. Boger of resuscitating the original Boenninghausen repertory. It is based on the fundamental concepts like the doctrine of a complete symptom (L.S.M.C.), pathological generals, causation & time, clinical rubrics, evaluation, fever totality, concordances.
In the BBCR, concomitants are given greater importance as they typify the individual reactions also corresponding to the PQRS symptoms of Dr. Hahnemann. The most important concomitants are:
- Ones which are rarely found in combination with the main problem and also infrequent while proving
- Ones that are of the different sphere of action from the main complaint
Important concomitants may sometimes outrank the main symptoms of the disease and may help in selecting a Similimum. They give individuality to the case totality and are definitely the most characteristic.
The scope of BBCR is immense in repertorization when the case consists of important characteristics as well as concomitants. BBCR is helpful even in a case with less mental symptoms, very few particulars and cases with pre-dominant modalities and concomitants. Arriving at a remedy in such cases becomes easier with BBCR and this repertory becomes a significant aspect in your daily homeopathic practice.
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