Brown Suger - Homeopathy

Dioscorea Villosa in the Treatment of Brown Sugar Addiction
During the treatment of Drug-addiction, when a particular drug is withdrawn, the addict experiences a number of unpleasant symptoms. These symptoms are specific to a particular type of intoxicant, and their intensity varies from one person to another person, depending upon the binding of that drug to opiate receptors in the body mainly the brain and rest of the central nervous system. In context to brown sugar addiction, which is considered to be one of the commonest addictions according to the data collected from various De-addiction centers all over India, the Symptoms that we observe in majority of these patients during the phase of drug withdrawal, are various types of pains-viz generalized body ache (constant dull-ache type), specified pain in calf muscles (excruciating type,) headache (throbbing type or dull ache) and abdominal pain (griping & Colicy type). Among homeopathic medicines various drugs have been found to be useful to alleviate these pains of brown sugar withdrawal viz Avena Sativa,Passiflora etc. (Sharma &Chauhan 1990) Dioscorea Villosa (Wild Yam) is considered to be useful medicine for almost all types of pain-abdominal colics’ pains in upper and lower extremity and various headaches

Dioscorea is considered to be a ‘Polycrest remedy’ since it works in multiple symptoms. Upon mind it has a sedative and tranquillizing effect. It relieves pressure and pain pertaining to head. It ameliorates severe abdominal pain in hands&fingers, fleeting pain from front to back, specific pain of internal organs like liver and kidney, pain increasing on bending like spondylitic pain and sciatica.

Material and Methods
This study was conducted on 50 brown –sugar addicts admitted as indoor patients at ‘Prabhat’ de-addiction center, Agra. All the subjects were male belonging to age range20-25 years and low middle socioeconomic group. They were examined physically as well as psychiatrically in order to exclude any major physical and mental illness,associate. All these subjects started experiencing pain approximately 18-24 hrs after their last dose of intoxicant.

Dioscorea was administered in the form of mother tincture (Q), 30 drops 3 times a day. Their pain was measured on a five –point scale everyday after Discorea administration.

Result and Discussion
Majority of patients started feeling a little relief in pain 2nd day onwards. There was a marked relief on 4th day in the pains of lower and upper extremities. These scores are sent for statistical analysis. The Data was found to be statistically significant on‘t’ test.The findings are supporting our previous findings ie. Heroin withdrawal symptoms can be successfully controlled by homeopathic medicines viz Avena Sativa &Passiflora(Sharma and Chauhan 1990). Boerike,Clarke, Ghosh & sidhankar have also mentioned the beneficial effect of Dioscorea in various disorders of nervous system including the brain disorder caused by alcohol, morphine and related drugs. This drug probably acts on receptor binding of opiates, by inhibiting the pain
sensitivity and manifests as a relief in pain.

Dr.Prabhat Kulshreshtra,DHMS
Dr.sheelendra Chauhan, MD Psych
Dr.(Mrs.) R.K.Verma,FCGP,MDF
From Homeosevak August 2007
Presented by Dr. Deoshlok Sharma