Difference Between Homeopathic Acute and Chronic Treatment?

Homeopathy is a holistic form of medicine that seeks to restore the patient to health in the gentlest and most effective way using homeopathy’s established principles and supports the body’s own healing abilities. Homeopathy looks at individual symptoms rather than the diagnosed diseases. A homeopath will treat a person as a whole taking into account every aspect of their being with the aim of restoring health.

An acute condition is one that arises suddenly and is typically short lived, lasting a day or two or up to several weeks. Typically, the symptoms come to a peak, can be intense and then begin to resolve quite quickly. Examples are minor injuries, coughs. colds, bites/stings, influenza, cystitis, infections, shock/fright to name a few. If symptoms persist however they may be indicative of a chronic condition.

In the homeopathic treatment of acute conditions, the restoration of health can be expected to occur quickly. Physical injuries, sprains, strains, minor burns and bruises will respond to remedies within hours, as do fevers and (recently occurring) coughs. The likes of influenza and virus infections usually clear up in a few days (depending on the severity) while more longer term acute ailments such as measles, chicken pox and mumps will run their normal course but generally tend to be shorter in length if treated homeopathically.

However, if symptoms are part of a longer term disease picture they would be considered chronic. For example, hayfever is a chronic condition. It has some acute symptoms that can be helped with acute prescribing, but hayfever needs to be treated as a chronic condition (known as constitutional prescribing) to achieve cure. Chronic conditions come on slowly. They are long-standing, recurring or conditions that persist more than several weeks or years. Examples include diabetes, asthma, eczema, migraines and cancer.

In homeopathy, constitutional prescribing refers to selecting a remedy based on an individual’s overall constitution—this includes physical, mental and emotional and inherited familial tendencies, childhood illnesses etc. Then, after childhood, every physical, emotional and mental shock, grief, surgery, bacterial infection, and any other illnesses which will have impacted the immune system.

Unlike acute prescribing, which focuses on addressing immediate symptoms (like for an illness or injury), constitutional prescribing aims to treat the underlying chronic or constitutional imbalances that might be contributing to the person’s overall health issues. Depending on the history of the patient, this process can take months and sometimes years. During the treatment, however, there can be regular indicators of improvement, even if seemingly small, indicating a gradual progression towards the restoration of health.

Whether you are looking for relief from short or long term ailments homeopathy can help.

Blog post by Kerry Killick