Piper methysticum

Case 1.1: Piper methysticum
By Anton Kramer

A woman age 32 complains about loss of sleep since 3 months; first seldom but increasingly often. She wakes at 4.00 or 5.00 and the thoughts crowd upon each other. Even if she goes to bed late she sleeps only till 7.00 or 8.00. She is tired and has a bad humour.
As cause for the complaints she mentions her divorce 10 months before. And the fact that she thinks a lot. About her love affairs, about little things in her job, concerning her two children, daily affairs. She holds to those things and can not stop thinking. And last but not least she prefers a busy, speedy life.
She divorced when her husband fell in love with an other. It was not really a surprise and it is the least of her problems. Recently she dreamt about making love with him and that disgusted her.
She does not relax; aerobics is nice and a burdon and she bicycles to her work but is always in a hurry.
She has quite some energy and she is strong woman (NL:”Een pittige tante”). “Need to be confronted with borders of other people, otherwise I am dominant”. “I can be to straight and blunt; I do not realize that I hurt others”. “I can be rude, and do not bother about it”. “I have my ups and I am very lively. Or I go deep, do not answer the telephone, enjoy me grief and feel deeply melancholic”.
She almost always has a running nose or has a real cold. Then she blows her nose frequently and sneezes a lot. Chilblains (3), red itching, painful, blisters.
“I am fascinated by food; that is what I talk about. I’d rather starve than eat something average (so do her father and uncles who own excellent restaurants). She eats a lot, spicy (3) and creamy (2), sweet and sour and relishes lamb the most. Aversion bananas (3) and boiled eggs (2). She feels warm (3) and perspires a lot. Menses regular, much and long (7 days).
I prescribed.. (Warm, eats a lot otherwise faint, still slender because her restlessness, aggravation 5.00. And changeable, insecure (3))

After one month she felt more relaxed, for example on waking. Sleep improved just a little bit. But she fell asleep with more difficulty. So I lloked for an other remedy. How did her sleep problems start? Not since her divorce but actually because one of her love affairs. He surprised her every time again in life and love life. In fact he was homosexual and that was what triggered her: “You understand that there is nothing more thrilling than to seduce a homosexual..!” And the had an affair but he left.
This changed my idea about remedies. I gave..: sleeplessness at 4.00, menses profuse, defiant, insolent, abusive, rudeness.

Six weeks later. Slept excellent till 10 days ago. She slept longer and when she woke she fell asleep again and she felt refreshed. She felt more sensitive and was more emotional. Chilblains improved a lot.

So I repeated remedy two. Six weeks later she tells that she is more relaxed, feels more balance, can take more distance from problems.
But she wakes again rather frequently at 4.00 or 5.00 again. Than she thinks a lot about work (she mentions work always first), love affairs and children. And her concentration is still bad; this is so since her children. And now when her children are with their father she does not read but ‘has other things to do”. She means that she wants to have fun. Then I think of the next remedy: Peppery people, buoyancy etc.
She sleeps better, does not need long sleep, and has better concentration. Now she can read a book again and feels less restless.

Evaluation.
This is in several aspects an interesting case. She reacted positively on the last two homeopathic remedies; each remedy giving important amelioration in a different aspect. Could one of them have given the same effect? Possibly, but I do not think so. Secondly, they share symptoms and me be valuable complements. Chilblains, sexuality.
In Myristica sebifera (Virola sebifera) small amounts of bufotenin are found; perhaps it is present in Piper methisticum too; this would make the similarity logic.