Previous Year Question Papers

Answer: Dr. Samuel Hahnemann. He discovered the principle “similia similibus curantur” (like cures like) and published the Organon of Medicine, the foundational text of Homoeopathy.

Answer: “Homoeos” (similar) and “pathos” (suffering), meaning the treatment of disease by drugs capable of producing similar symptoms in healthy individuals.

Answer: The vital force is the spirit-like, life-sustaining energy that animates the body, maintains health, and responds to the healing action of remedies. Disease arises from its derangement; cure occurs when it is restored to balance.

Answer: The Law of Similars (“Similia Similibus Curentur” — let likes cure likes). A substance that produces symptoms in a healthy person can cure those same symptoms in a sick person.

Answer: A miasma is an underlying chronic disease tendency or constitutional predisposition inherited or acquired, which Hahnemann described as Psora, Sycosis, and Syphilis. Chronic miasms underlie recurring and chronic diseases.

Answer: Individualisation means tailoring treatment to the unique totality of each patient — physical symptoms, mental/emotional state, constitution, and circumstances. No two patients are identical even with the same diagnosis, so remedies are chosen individually, not by disease label.

Answer: Susceptibility is the individual’s sensitivity/reactivity to stimuli (including remedies and disease), while a symptom is an outward manifestation of internal disease. Higher susceptibility means a greater response to both the environment and remedies.

Answer: The totality of symptoms is the complete collection of characteristic signs and symptoms of a patient, including mentals, generals, particulars, modalities, and concomitants. It forms the basis for selecting the simillimum remedy.

Answer: The core principles include: (1) Law of Similars — like cures like; (2) Law of Minimum Dose — using the smallest dose capable of producing a therapeutic response to avoid aggravation; (3) Single Remedy — prescribing a single, well-chosen remedy at a time; (4) Vital Force & individualisation; (5) Drug proving on healthy humans; (6) Doctrine of miasms; and (7) cure follows a natural order (from vital to less vital organs, centre to periphery, above downwards). Together these form the scientific and philosophical foundation of Homoeopathy.

Answer: Case-taking is the systematic collection of the patient’s complete health picture — history, symptoms, mentals, generals, particulars, modalities, family history, and past treatment. It is the cornerstone of individualisation. A thorough case-taking allows correct repertorisation, accurate remedy selection, and a successful, lasting cure. Poor case-taking leads to wrong prescriptions.

Answer: Belladonna. It features sudden, intense, throbbing headaches, flushed face, dilated pupils, and sensitivity to light and noise, better from pressure and worse from jarring.

Answer: Silicea. It is indicated in nervous, oversensitive, chilly individuals, with abscesses and low vitality, better from warmth and worse from cold drafts.

Answer: Pitting edema (œdema) that is white, shiny, and better from cold applications, with burning, stinging pains and a sensation of tension. Worse from heat and touch.

Answer: Nux vomica. It also features irritability, over-sensitivity, digestive complaints, and worse from stimulants, stress, and early morning.

Answer: Pulsatilla people are mild, gentle, yielding, and emotional; they weep easily, desire company and consolation, are changeable and clingy. Better in open air, from gentle motion and weeping; worse from warmth, rich/fatty food, and in the evening. Complaints tend to shift location.

Answer: Sulphur is suited to untidy, absorbed-in-philosophy people with a strong internal heat; they crave sweets and fats, dislike bathing, have dry scaly skin and itching worse from warmth and at night. It is a deep-acting constitutional remedy and a good intercurrent remedy.

Answer: Arsenicum album has dry, scaly, burning eruptions with restlessness and anxiety; skin is sensitive and burning pains are relieved by heat. Associated with prostration, thirst for sips of water, and aggravation after midnight (1–3 am).

Answer: Belladonna — sudden, violent, throbbing, congestive states, burning heat, worse from jarring and touch, better from pressure; red face, dilated pupils. Bryonia — slow onset, stitching pains worse from motion and better from absolute rest and pressure; dry mouth with thirst for large drinks; irritable; constipated. Rhus tox — tearing/rusty pains with stiffness, worse on first motion and better from continued motion and warmth; restless, better from rubbing/heat; indicated in strains, sprains, and skin eruptions with vesicles. Together they cover acute inflammatory and musculoskeletal states.

Answer: Dr. James Tyler Kent. His repertory, based largely on the Boenninghausen and Lippe tradition, became the most widely used repertory in classical homoeopathy.

Answer: Gradations are shown by typography — uppercase bold (Grade 3) for the most strongly indicated remedies, italic (Grade 2) for moderately indicated, and roman/lowercase (Grade 1) for mildly indicated remedies.

Answer: Repertorisation is the systematic analysis of the patient’s symptoms (rubrics) using a repertory to shortlist and grade the most suitable remedies, which are then cross-checked with the Materia Medica to select the simillimum.

Answer: In repertorisation, the most characteristic and individualising symptoms — mentals, generals, rare/peculiar symptoms (Rubric of “rare, strange & peculiar” per Kent) — are converted into rubrics. These are analysed, graded, and the remedies that cover the largest number of strong rubrics are shortlisted, then verified against Materia Medica.

Answer: Kent’s is a general/analytical repertory with a detailed, hierarchical chapter structure (mentals, generals, particulars with abundant rubrics and cross-references); Boenninghausen’s uses a therapeutical pocket-book approach with a doctrine of correspondences (concomitants and relationship), emphasising generals and modalities across a grid format.

Answer: Steps: (1) Take a complete case and extract characteristic symptoms; (2) Convert them into rubrics (choose the most specific and confirmed symptoms); (3) Grade the rubrics and look up remedies; (4) Combine/analyse the repertory sheets, tallying remedies across rubrics; (5) Study the shortlisted remedies in the Materia Medica; (6) Select the simillimum considering the constitutional picture and miasm. Example: a chronic case of insomnia with anxiety and palpitations — rubrics “Mind – Anxiety with palpitation” and “Sleep – Sleeplessness from anxiety” lead to remedies like Arsenicum album, Aconite, and Kali phos.

Answer: The doctrine of concomitants (emphasised by Boenninghausen) holds that the accompanying/associated symptoms that occur with the chief complaint are especially valuable for remedy selection. Concomitants that are common or pestilential are less useful; rare, peculiar, and well-marked concomitants help pinpoint the simillimum and increase the precision of the prescription.

Answer: Potency refers to the strength/dynamic development of a remedy based on the number of dilution and succussion steps it has undergone. Higher potencies are more diluted and dynamically stronger though chemically less concentrated.

Answer: Succussion is the vigorous shaking/striking of a homoeopathic dilution (often 10 downward percussions) as part of the dynamisation process, which is believed to release the medicinal energy of the remedy.

Answer: A mother tincture (θ or MT) is prepared by macerating the drug material in a suitable menstruum (alcohol/water) in a defined proportion, then filtering. It is the base from which higher potencies are made.

Answer: Centesimal scale dilutes 1 part remedy in 99 parts of vehicle at each step (1 : 100); decimal scale dilutes 1 part in 9 parts (1 : 10). Decimal potencies are denoted X or D, centesimal as C.

Answer: Drug proving involves administering a potentised remedy to healthy human volunteers under controlled conditions, then systematically recording all symptoms, sensations, modalities, and mental changes produced. These provings build the drug picture (Materia Medica) and establish the therapeutic range of the remedy. Hahnemann emphasised testing on healthy, sensitive individuals of both sexes.

Answer: The vehicle carries the dynamised remedy and preserves its potency. Lactose (milk sugar) globules are used for oral administration and are inert and easily absorbed; distilled water and alcohol are used for liquid dilution and preservation, preventing degradation and maintaining the stability and efficacy of the medicine.

Answer: Tuberculosis (especially pulmonary TB). Classical symptoms include low-grade evening pyrexia, weight loss, anorexia, night sweats, and cough. In Homoeopathy, remedies like Tuberculinum, Arsenicum, and China may be considered based on totality.

Answer: Obstructive jaundice (cholestasis). The clay-coloured (acholic) stool indicates obstruction of bile flow into the gut, commonly due to gallstones, strictures, or tumours. It must be investigated further with imaging and liver function tests.

Answer: Koilonychia (spoon-shaped nails) — brittle, thin, concave nails, along with fatigue, pallor, glossitis, and pica. Confirmed by low serum ferritin and haemoglobin.

Answer: This picture suggests a Pulsatilla-type constitution — mild, weepy, consolable, worse before menses, with shifting symptoms. However, other menstrual-migraine remedies include Lachesis and Sepia. Selection depends on the full totality (mentals, modalities, concomitants) confirmed from the Materia Medica.

Answer: Acute cases require swift identification of the acute totality and a low-to-moderate potency remedy repeated as needed (e.g., Aconite, Belladonna). Chronic cases require deep constitutional case-taking, repertorisation, a single high-potency simillimum (often antimiasmatic), and planned follow-ups, addressing the underlying miasmatic tendency rather than just relieving symptoms.

Answer: Prognosis is the assessment of whether a case is curable, palliable, or incurable based on the patient’s vitality, the nature and duration of the disease, and the depth of the miasm. Cure is judged by Hering’s Law of Cure: symptoms disappear from above downward, from within outward, from more to less vital organs, and in the reverse order of their appearance.