CHARACTERISTICS OF PSORA

Francisco VALIENTE

 Translated from the Spanish by J. PHILLIPS, M.D.

 (H. RECORDER, April, 1941)

         He may be depressed and cannot speak; but when he can he speaks lightly and does not waste words.  There comes to his memory more words than he can express.

         Sad, unhappy, thoughtful, discouraged, depressed, melancholic.  Recovery of his health seems to him impossible; he hopes for nothing.  Weepy character; the patient passes hours weeping without knowing why.  Attacks of fury likened to frenzy.

         Monomania, or the desire to rob, is given by Psora, but it needs Sycosis in order to become a true Kleptomania.  How abundant are thieves!  It is because gonorrhoeas abound!

         Lack of energy, lack of capacity to do mental work, are Psoric.  You can cause a psoric patient to reflect by insinuations and allusions, but not a syphilitic or sycotic; there is a certain torpidity in the mind of the syphilitic.  In the psorics there are more fancies in their delirium than in the syphilitics.

         The attacks of Psora are ameliorated by some process of elimination as Diarrhoea, copious urine, copious sweat or an eruption.

         Vertigo while walking, when moving about, looking upward, getting up from a seat or lying down.  Vertigo with unconsciousness for a moment.  Vertigo with an eruption, with headache, prosopalgia, followed by loss of consciousness.  Vertigo as though he were drunk.  Sensation as though he were up in the air.  Sensation as though the head were larger than the body.  Vertigo with all kinds of digestive perturbations.  Heaviness in the head and weakness of the legs.  Vertigo from shutting the eyes.

         Headache that increases with the course of the sun and becomes better as the sun begins to set.  Headaches that are better from repose.  Headaches in which the patient is hungry  just before it commences (both Psora and Syphilis). 

         Chronic headaches.  Hunger during the attacks.

         The brain feels large.  Pain in the occiput.

         Dry eruption on the scalp.  Gray hair.  Dry hair.  Hair turning white too soon.  Severe itching

in the head.  Painful boils, very painful, very sensitive, but not suppurating; if they do suppurate there is a mixture  of Psora and sycosis.  Aversion to having the head covered.

         Chronic form of hyperaemia of the eyes.  His eyes will not stand the light of day.  Chronic ophthalmia repeating with frequency.  Eyelids red, stick together during the night.  Acrid secretions Cillary blepharitis that passes from the right eye to the left.  Swollen inflamed lids.  Where there is a tendency to styes both Psora and Syphilis are present.

         The neuralgias are distinguished by their character and periodicity.  Those of Psora are worse are worse from heat, and are better in the morning as the sun rises.  Pain behind the ears.  Ear difficulties are of nervous origin in Psora.  Itching of the ears.   (Intolerable itching; Psora or Sycosis).  Offensive discharge from the ears due to Eczema of the ears.

         Psora magnifies the sense of smell.  The patients are affected very much by odors and awake speaking of some odor that has come to them.  They are always smelling cooked food, dinners, flowers, plants, perfumes, paints, etc., and there are odors that cause them nausea, vomiting, headaches, fainting and vertigo.

         The catarrhs of the psoric commence with sneezing, heat, nose sensitive to touch; the discharge is liquid, watery and acrid and when mixed with Sycosis becomes purulent and bad smellings.  Dry coryza with obstruction of the nose, chronic catarrh; he expels great quantities of clear mucus.  Acne rosacea.

         Crusta lactea in the scalp, face, cheeks and ears covered with dry scabs.  Humid eruption on the face.  Sickly expression.  Red lips are indicative of Psora; but when extremely red and it appears as if blood would ooze from them both Psora and Syphilis are exhibited.  Swelling of the upper lip.  The psoric face is dry, granulous, that is with boils and a dirty appearance.  Vesicles in the corners of the mouth, little, white, transparent and itchy. 

(Corners of the mouth ulcerated: Psora and Syphilis.)

         Stomatitis in children. (Stomatitis with true ulcers: Psora with Syphilis.)  Profuse saliva.  Bitter taste, with yellow tongue   Bitter taste, sweet or sour.  Perversion of taste; bread has a bitter taste.  A burnt taste, or as of something burnt.

         Mucus in the throat.  The throat burns, feels scalded.

         Canine, morbid hunger.  Desires to eat sweets, acids and sour things.  In the midst of fever desires butter or acid things.  Desire to travel, to change residence, place, manner of living.  Hunger at midnight.

         Sensation of emptiness or malaise in the stomach at 10 or 11 a.m. that is not hunger.  Fullness and accumulation of gas in the abdomen.  Desire for fried things, highly seasoned food.  Meat and greasy food and vegetables do not mix well in psoric or tubercular patients.  Sensation of a vacuum in the stomach.  Canine hunger early in the morning.  Always hungry, he has to keep something to eat at midnight.

         Sensation of heat or coldness in the stomach.  Sensation of weakness, stiffness, fullness and weight, as if a rock were in the stomach.  Sensations of constriction, oppression after eating, palpitation, lack of breath, vertigo with anxiety.  After eating he suffers headache, flatulence, weakness.  Eructations, flatus smelling like rotten eggs.  Bilious gastric affection.

         The patient does not wish to be touched when in pain, because the least pressure makes him worse.

         The desires and the affinities of the patients are Miasmatic phenomena of great value for the physician that follows after HAHNEMANN.  In the febrile state or perturbations of the liver, the psoric patient has aversion to sweets and desires acid things of every class; fruit acids, lemonade, butter.  Psora does not produce physiological changes of structure; there must also be in this case some other Miasm present.

         In the psoric patient we do not see changes of lines; curves or corners of the chest are normal; but the moment that Syphilis enters, we have Tuberculosis.  The chest becomes narrow, the subclavicular spaces become hollow, and certain areas are depressed; one lung is larger than the other; one side is fuller than the other, and the respiratory power is narrowed down.  The respiration is performed diaphragmatically, the lungs do not expand sufficiently.  Atrophy comes as a consequence of imperfect oxidation.

         The psoric patient has spitting of a scarce mucus without taste.

         Weakness, fullness, heaviness and pain in the cardiac region.

         Flushes of blood to the chest in young people, as well as the face or some other part, is not alone psoric but also syphilitic.  Violent palpitations that shake the body are encountered in the psorics and tuberculous. 

         Sensation of a band around the body in the Cardiac region.

         A psoric patient with palpitation has less anxiety than the others.  The Cardiac disturbances are functional in Psora.  The Cardiac disturbance in the psoric patient are better by lying down and quiet.  The sycotic patient is better from movement.

         The oppression and anxiety of psoric patients are worse in the morning, and their pains are worse from movement, laughing or coughing.  The cardiac disturbances from loss of a friend, fear, etc., are psoric.

         He thinks he has an acute heart attack and that he will die.  (The syphilitic and the sycotic deny they have heart disease.)  Cardiac difficulties worse by eating or drinking or in the evening.  Cardiac disturbances with palpitations upon lying down during digestion, (better) > by belching, with anxiety and sadness.

         The abdomen feels uncomfortable, full, although he eats sparingly.  Pains that are better by heat.

         The psoric child suffers coldness of the abdomen, with Diarrhoea or Dysentery.  The Diarrhoea of Psora is from eating heavily, because he has a canine appetite and he eats more than his digestive faculties can handle.  The Diarrhoea of Psora comes on from terror, sadness, bad news; also when there are family reunions or they are preparing for them, or from changes in the weather.  The psoric Diarrhoea changes color, is fetid but not painful; is worse by cold, movement, cold drinks, but is > (better) by hot drinks.  Mucous deposition, bloody, excessively fetid, fluid and dark colored.

         The constipation of Psora is very marked, persistent, there is no desire.  The deposition is dry, hard, scarce and difficult to expel.  Sometimes there is constipation alternating with Diarrhoea.  Head pains, liver pains, sleepiness, stupor; heaviness, and no desire to work.  Black balls, hard, burnt, and held together with threads of mucus.   Constipation in scrofulous children.

         Sensation of nervousness, as of ants crawling, is characteristic of Psora.

         Psora alone is not malignant, but united with other Miasms it becomes dangerous.  It makes the other Miasms more malignant.  So we have selfish, hypocritical persons that conduce others to do evil.

         There is retention of urine in the psoric child when he takes cold.  The urine flows involuntarily when he sneezes, laughs or coughs.  In fevers or acute diseases, the urine is white with phosphate deposits.

         In Psora there are all kinds of fluxes but no haemorrhages.  The periods are scarce and of short duration.   Sometimes the flow is intermittent, is detained and returns.

         The dysmenorrhoea of Psora is not painful as in Syphilis and Sycosis.

         The leucorrhoea of Psora  is scarce, extenuated, is of any color, combined with itching, but is not yellow, thick or yellow-greenish as in the sycotic diathesis.  Fetid leucorrhoea with much weakness and pain in the dorsal region.  Breasts swollen and painful.  Pimples that secrete a scarce acrid fluid.

         Neuralgic pains of Psora  are worse by movement and better by repose and heat.

         The hands in Psora are dry, hot, with a burning sensation in the palms of the hands and feet.  This dryness and heat is a source of suffering for the patient.  Cramps in the inferior extremities, in the legs, in the calves of the legs, ankles and fingers.

         A burning sensation in the feet, the extremities going to sleep, with pulsations or itching, sensation as though sleep were coming on, worse by lying down or pressure or crossing the legs, pulsations or the fingers going to sleep because of poor circulation, coldness of one single part, as knees, hands, feet, ears, nose.  The psoric patient can walk much, but it kills him to be quiet standing up on his feet; he looks for a place to sit down.

         Waves of heat (surges) during changes of life.

         He is sometimes cold with any kind of ailment;  Psora and Syphilis.  Cold hands: Syphilis and Psora .

         Pimples on the face are of psoric origin, if they are sensitive, small and painful, but when they suppurate there is a combination of Sycosis with .  It was upon the skin that HAHNEMANN recognized the psoric vesicle.  The small vesicle is Psora, the large one is Sycosis.  In Psora the skin is dry, dirty, looks sickly, has a rough appearance.  Prurigo in the skin and papulous eruption with internal itching are psoric.  Papular-vesicular eruption.  The scabs and scales of Psora are light, fine and small over the part affected; those of Syphilis are large.  In Psoriasis the skin loses its humidity and becomes excessively dry, free of oil or sebaceous secretions.

         Asthma with dyspnoea, worse by sitting down, better from lying down and  stretching out the arms (peculiar, is it not?).

         Dry cough with great weakness in the chest.  Sensation of ulceration behind the sternum.  Pains in the breast that are worse from lying down.  The cough returns every winter.  Hay fever that repeats itself every year.

         Weakness in the joints.  Eruption around the finger nails.  Fetid footsweat (Psora and Syphilis).  Greasy dirty aspect of the skin with yellow spots here and there.  Scaly squamous state of the skin (Psora and Syphilis).

         Painful eruption of little vesicles that fill rapidly with a serous yellow fluid.  Dry itchy mange on the arms and the breast, more intense in the joints of the fingers.  Scabby eruption all over the body.  Loss of sleep from intolerable itching.  Horrible dreams.  Tendency to contract cutaneous diseases.  Skin inactive.

         Varices, venous varicoses in the inferior extremities, varices in the secret parts and also on the arms; Psora with Sycosis, aggravated with Syphilis.

         Psora fertilizes the field for all kinds of parasites, therefore it is responsible for intermittent and remittent fevers in Malaria; it is the mother of the worms, oxyuria, tricocephalus, tenias, amoebas, etc.  Combined with Syphilis it brings on Scrofula, with its nits and lice; the mothers say, “I have cleaned this child’s head good and here it is covered with lice again.”  Behold the chronic Miasms of HAHNEMANN!