Cic, Cicuta Virosa

Cic in four sentences

• Neurological medicine
• It is a medicine in two phases of immorality and childish behavior
• Epilepsy (strange facial expressions, seizure with any stimulus such as suppression of rash, aura in solar plexus)
• Extreme sensitivity to emotional stimuli such as sad movies

ADHD esp in children with history of Epilepsy /Convulsions.

Introduction

Cicuta belongs to the Umbelliferae family. All the members of this family have an action on the nervous system, the mucosa (catarrh), the skin (pustulous or scabby eruptions). Other Umbelliferae known and used in homoeopathy are the following: Aeth, Ammoniacum gummi, Asaf, Con, Petros and Phellandrium.

Interestingly Con has slow symptoms of paralysis, whereas Cic excites the nervous system and provokes spasms. Both bring on scabby eruptions, esp on the lip area where Cicuta has cured cancers which were covered with yellowish secretions.

Both Asaf and Cic has spasmodic action. Asaf has a well-known anti-peristaltic action which causes throat lump.

Mind

At first, studying the mental signs of the remedy does not reveal very much. As long as the clue has not been found, it is difficult to have an idea of the remedy since there is such gibberish of information in total opposition to each other.

Absent minded, catalepsy

• For a long period of time, he absolutely does not remember what is going on around him. Literally it is said, he is “disconnected”. (Cic ₳ Nux-m)
• The patient has frequent fits of absentmindedness of variable duration or he is so buried in his thoughts that he is no longer aware of what goes on around him.
• According to Hering, She knows no one, but when touched and spoken to, she answers
  • Suddenly consciousness returns, and she remembers nothing of what has occurred.
  • Loss of consciousness with open eyes, knows no one, but when touched or spoken to answers questions; consciousness returns suddenly, and she does not remember what has passed; attacks twice a day.
• This ability to immediately be ‘ back again’ whilst being in his own inner world, is absolutely specific to this remedy. Arn or Bapt patients have also stuporous state, replies when spoken to, then falls back into lethargy. Whereas Cicuta can leave his inner world and is immediately able to be “back again”, without reverting to obliviousness.

Automatism

• Cicuta patient takes his car every morning for the same drive to his office.
• He is able to drive it in an automatic way whilst being deeply in his thoughts or while being “disconnected”. This is so true that when he has to run an errand in an opposite direction to the usual one, he will probably drive several miles on his usual way before getting aware of his mistake.

All these phenomena are readily aggravated by the tendency to be mistaken in going to places and in estimating times. Since the patient has a strong tendency to take refuge into his own world (to the point of ecstasy), he can reach the point of mingling the present with the past (likewise, we find Dullness of Senses symptoms, everything appears Strange).

Tendencies to be lost in thoughts (Cic ₳ Nat-m) Nat-m is the major differential diagnosis with Cic.

Anxiety about the future

• He has only anxiety about the future It is not anticipation, as found in Med, Lyc or Carc, but a real anxiety about the future with a hardly disguised pessimism.
• Cicuta is often interested in the fate of humanity and is very worried about its future.
• Sometimes, the patient is more concerned about himself with the fear of falling ill or of the occurrence of a catastrophe. Here it is very close to Sul on the philosophical side. (Cic ₳ Sul)

Key points

• MIND: Shuns the foolishness of men; or Misanthropy, shuns the foolishness of men.
• Contempt and scorn for mankind; he avoided them, abhorred their follies excessively, and his disposition seemed to tend towards misanthropy; he withdrew himself into solitude. (Allen)
• Cic is mild, Sympathethic and sensitive to unpleasant events (Cic ₳ Puls), (Cic ₳ Nat-m)

MIND - HORRIBLE things, sad stories affect her profoundly

MIND - FRIGHTENED easily

MIND - FEAR - people; of

MIND - FEAR - people; of - confidence in; from loss of

MIND - FEAR - people; of - contempt for; with

MIND - FEAR - people; of - shuns the foolishness of

MIND - SENSITIVE - sad stories, to

MIND - TALKING - unpleasant things agg.; of

MIND - SYMPATHETIC

• Sensitivity, compassion, moral values
• Disappointment, grief
• Escape, withdrawal

Cicuta has to be added indisputably to the 1 grade in the rubric Ailment from disappointment

Different adaptive mechanisms

Homeopathy teaches us to see both sides of the same hill. Likewise, Cic is able to display two different pictures whilst struggling to adapt itself in this cruel world. We’ll describe here the passive mode, that is the more classical in Caust or Ly.

Passive Mode: The Escape

• Feeling repelled by human behavior, Cic tries to run away from it.
• He no longer wants to meet people he does not know. He cannot stand crowds, not because of a claustrophobia, but because he feels repelled by the frequent instinctive reactions of an anonymous crowd.
• Opposed to Staph, rather than getting angry and rebelling, they prefer not to be confronted with it. Of course both have Indignation / Wounded dignity + Avoiding conflicts / Refusing to quarrel. (Cic ₳ Staph)

Desire to stay home

• When cic has to go out, he wants to come back as soon as possible. This tendency to stay home is very evocative, and although it could be mistaken with the Nat-m withdrawal, two other remedies should also be mentioned:
  • Bry has a fear of the future, is easily irritated against others and has a yearning to go home. (Bry ₳ Cic)
  • Bar-c likes to stay home and is afraid of the future. This is due to his shyness and his extreme lack of confidence in himself. His home, a familiar environment with well known marks, is a haven of peace which secures him. The fear of the future can be explained by the fact that Bar-c is aware of his deficiencies and lives in the future with a lot of anticipation. (Bar-c ₳ Cic)
• Cicuta patient is often taciturn, distrustful and not very talkative.

Active Mode: Provocation, anger

• We often think of Cic's depressed and disappointed face, while Cic can be very violent and angry. The ruling oppression can lead people to irritability and indignation
• The first signs of backing out is“I can no longer stand to be in a group, I am rejected, I am troublesome”. But the patient still has enough energy to pursue his fights and stand up for his ideals. (Cic ₳ Lyc) (Caust ₳ Cic)

Cic is a sensitive person who has lofty views about the future of humanity, but things don't look so good. He is seriously injured. Therefore, his reactions are accompanied by anger and avoidance of humanity

We have just drawn the picture of a sensitive person with high views on humanity’s future, but who is hit hard by reality which he finds sordid (more than anyone else would do). How will he react?

To my knowledge, there are two types of reactions which, sometimes, can be found in the same person.

Provocation, contestation

Initially, provings show a childish behavior linked to epilepsy. A woman on coming out of the cataleptic attacks often takes on childish behavior. A man thinks that he is a child and acts like one; silly laughter, playing with toys, and other acts of childish behavior..[Kent]

Considering the cases I have come across, I think the reality (I mean, at the present day) is more subtle. In fact, this wounded subject tries to attract attention on his suffering, although without seeking consolation. This attitude, somewhat haughty and proud, warrants the place of the remedy in the followings rubrics:

Censorious, critical (1). Haughty (1). Contemptuous (1). Reproaches (1)

Feeling constantly disappointed, Cicuta is reproachful to everyone and can come to have a haughty way, considering himself above everyone else since he thinks he is the only one to have human and moral values in this “degenerated world”.

Here, Platinum is one of the differential diagnoses. Plat always has an authoritative side and shows off in eccentric, costly and very immodest clothes, whereas Cic does not like to show off and does not care about his look (it could even be an additional contestation). It is a fact that Plat is often a very idealistic person also disappointed by reality.

This disappointment in Platinum is compensated either by a “Natrum aspect” when patients keep dwelling on sad things of the past, or by an unrestrained narcissism. This is in no way like Cicuta. The sexual drive is very strong in Plat, this is not the case in Cicuta.

As his sensitiveness does not allow him to easily show his feelings – remember that Cicuta is aggravated while speaking of unpleasant things – acting then like a clown to be noticed is the only option left for him.

Cheerful (3). Childish (3). Dancing(2); grotesque, (2). Foolish behavior (1). Gestures (1); ridiculous or foolish (1). Jesting (2); ridiculous (2). Laughing (1); silly (1). Shrieking (3). Singing (2). Weeping (3), aloud (1).

Our sensitive Cicuta will not hesitate to joke grossly, to make people laugh at all costs, to act like a clown, to sing, etc… It looks like a sort of provocation or an attempt to ward off his own sensitiveness in trying to appear as rude or rustic as possible, which really is in total opposition to what he truly is.

Anger

Sometimes, he feels so fed up that his inner anger bursts out.

In the repertory, we find some interesting rubrics:

Answer, abruptly (2). Discontented (1). Hatred (3). Impulsive (2). Irritability (1). Malicious (1). Rage, fury (1). Sensitivity, noise (1). Violent (3). Violent, deeds, leading to (1).

Our Cic subject can then express all the resentment he feels against people who offended him (Staph); but there again the anger has seldom something to do with personal matters, it’s rather directed towards people – he thinks – involved in anti-humanitarian actions. Therefore, we discover that Nat-m is not the only remedy to have this “Indian hate”, as mentioned by Lathoud, Cicuta can also be very caustic.

Impulses can often be overwhelming and the person will have real fits of rage.With such a behavior one should also think of Nux Vomica: sensitivity to noise, sympathetic. Sometimes, the Cicuta patient only shows these fits of anger and his sensitivity to noise, which is the reason why it can be confused with Nux. However, we’ll see that Nux usual modalities are not there, there is no desire for “good food”, wine, coffee, spicy food, no insomnia, no bloating, no fussiness. This means that Cicuta should come to mind.

Other neurological issues

Although nowadays Cicuta is rarely prescribed for epileptic troubles or chorea, this remedy is nevertheless still “flirting” with neurological phenomena.

Shocks and shakes

These symptoms are often found in various entries of the repertory:

HEAD: Motions of, jerking (2), jerking, lying on back (2), backward (2), talking (2/1); Shocks, in head (2), electrical (2), cold, air (2/1), motion, on (2), sudden (2), extending, extremities, to (3/3).

STOMACH: Shocks (3). Shocks, convulsions, before (3/1).

BACK: Pain, jerking, coccyx (2,2), coccyx, menses, during (2/1); Shocks, along spine (1), dorsal (1).

EXTREMITIES: Jerking (3), upper limbs (3), left (2), forearm (3), talking, while (1/1), fingers (3), fingers, epilepsy, in (3/1), lower limbs (3), foot (2); Shocks sensation of(2), upper limbs (3), left (2), lower limbs (2), violent, causes leg to jerk (1/1).

GENERALITIES: Jerking internally (1), convulsions, like (2), muscles (3,2); Pain, jerking, externally (1); Shocks, electric like (2), cerebral commotion, from (1/1), sense, return of the, on (1/1).

There is a wide spectrum of symptoms going from the feeling of shock, like an electrical shock, to the actual shaking of a limb. Epileptic patients acutely describe the feeling of a shock in the stomach just before having a fit. However,

I would recommend systematically looking for the feeling of a sudden shock in the head, since many patients experience it. Before pointing this out to them, it is something they have a hard time defining as it is a sudden shock with a variable loss of senses, vision, although it is not like an ordinary positional vertigo. This feeling will often propagate in the rachis and feels like the brain is dropping out.

At other times, as the patient is quietly sitting in front of his TV set, he will jolt everyone by suddenly stretching a limb.

Natrum muriaticum mainly has lower limbs restlessness, also known as “the fidgets”. He also has shakes when falling asleep, which differs from Cicuta who has sudden discharges while being awake.

Sudden starts and sensitivity to touch

The following headings give an idea on the remedy’s nervous sensitiveness :

Frightened, easily (2). Starting (1). Starting, noise, from (3,2), easily (3,2), fright, from (3,2), bed, in (0/3)

Touch brings about numerous troubles, the Cicuta patient feels countless contused pains, the slightest touch is painful. In common cases, touch causes sudden starts, it can go to the point of convulsions…. The person is easily frightened, which is showed by jumps, but Kent gives examples where children start squinting whenever they are scared.

Sensitivity to touch, sudden starts, shocks in the stomach area also remind us of Kalium carbonicum. The resemblance stops here, Kali-c being a conservator, down to earth and very regular in everything. However, Kali-c often shows a sensitiveness for what is fair or unfair, while Cicuta is concerned with humanity’s well being.

Kali-c has a tendency to cling on, with a fear of letting go, for example, it often is the remedy for women who stay with husbands who give them a lot of trouble. On the opposite, Cicuta slowly breaks away from everyone. Moreover, Kali-c does not have as strong a tendency to convulsions as Cicuta.

After-effects of head and rachis injuries

Again, it is difficult to get away from Nat-m which also shows this modality. In fact, Cicuta is a major remedy for traumas, not only for mental ones:

MIND: Injuries, mental symptoms following (1). Sadness, injuries of the head, from (2).

VERTIGO: Injuries head, after (1).

HEAD: Concussion of brain (3). Pain, injuries, after (2,2). Injuries of head, from (2).

THROAT: Injuries oesophagus (2/1), splinter, bone (2/1), convulsions, provokes (2/1).

GENERALITIES: Injuries, concussion (1), glands (1). Shock injuries, from (2). Shock electric like, concussion of brain, from(1/1). Convulsions, commotion of the brain (3), splinter in throat (2/1), injuries (2). Wounds (1)5, knife (1), splinters (3,2), penetrating (1).

An external aggression, may it be a shock on the nervous tissue or a simple sting, fully reveals the convulsive nature of the remedy. As far as perforating wounds are concerned, the major indications are of course Ledum palustre and Hypericum.

With Ledum, we see coldness of the wounded areas, although the patient does not feel the cold. Hypericum is indicated when the same trauma damages the nerves, with the presence of strong shooting pains (neuritis). Here, we see that Cicuta induces convulsions through reflex effect of the nerves, which is not at all the case with the two other remedies. However before the discovery of Ledum, Cicuta was used fairly efficiently in prevention of tetanus.

If we get back to the signs following cranial trauma, Cicuta can develop convulsions, as well as convergent strabismus (not listed in the repertory), or an anxiodepressive condition.

In this case, we could think of Natrum Sulfuricum, especially as Cicuta can also have suicidal ideas. Like all Natrum remedies, Sulfuricum is sensitive and uncommunicative, but as indicated by Vermeulen, he is the less sensitive one and the most uncommunicative of all Natrums. These people are very realistic, objective, not spontaneous, down to earth, very responsible and with a strong sense of duty, etc… Here again, Cicuta differs with his particular sensitiveness to humanity and human beings in general. Cicuta’s sense of duty is directed towards humanity, whereas Nat-s is more self centered or for his close ones.

Vertigo

The Cicuta patient often has dizzy spells, which is easy to understand, considering the nervous irritation specific of the remedy. Of course, it can be dizziness following cranial trauma, but there are many kinds of dizziness. There can often be a tendency to stagger, wobble, and sometimes fall. It can also be a very strong orthostatic sickish feeling with loss of vision and the classical feelings of shake in the head and drop of the brain, etc..

Meningitis

Fortunately, we no longer find cases such as described by Kent, but in order to be exhaustive on the subject, you will find below his much detailed description :

It has cured cerebro-spinal meningitis when there were convulsions and the convulsions were aggravated from touch, with fever and even spotted mottled skin. Mind and head symptoms after injuries. On going into a cerebro-spinal meningitis the patient sits in a chair talking as if nothing were wrong, when, quick as a flash, he passes into another state in which be knows no one; he falls over limp, he is put to bed, and though he answers questions he remains in a semi conscious state, knowing no one.

This may change into a spasm. The head is bent back in spasms; jerking back of the head; spasms begin in the head and go downward. Violent shocks in the head, arms and legs. Head hot and extremities cold, like Bell. in its convulsions. Sweat on the scalp when sleeping. Child rolls head from side to side. Hot head.

Convulsive action about the eyes; pupils dilated and insensible patient lies fixed in one place, with starting, fixed, glassy, upturned eyes, like Cupr.

Strabismus may be the only spasm the child is subject to from cerebral irritation. Every time the child is frightened it has strabismus; when touched or when it has cold, or after a fall biting the head, or coming periodically, it has strabismus.

Skin issues: Rashes

To complete the picture, let’s not forget rashes. Although there are numerous sorts of rashes in Cicuta, I will focus on the cephalic extremity which is most frequently concerned .

Face

There are rashes on the beard or on the side-whiskers. Generally speaking, we can say that Cicuta shows rashes on all the hairy parts (beard, eyebrows, chest, etc…). Cicuta is also very helpful with aftershaving rashes.

Scalp

It is the typical scabby eczema on the head. Scabs in addition to convulsions are quite exclusively found in Cicuta (Morrison). Sometimes, it can only be common dandruff, but generally the Cicuta patient has scabs exuding with yellowish serosities, which can bleed when removed.

Other characteristics

Alimentary

So far, I have never met any patient with marked alimentary cravings. Typically, Cicuta feels like eating stodgy foods, coal, etc… He also craves for alcohol, cabbage and starchy foods.

Ulcerations

The remedy is able to provoke all sorts of ulcerations. Kent mentions cases of cancers on the corner of lip cured by Conium. However, although this is not mentioned in the repertory, Cicuta cures, just as well, stomach ulcers. In the case of strong annoyances, instead of systematically thinking of Lyc or Nat-m, remember Cicuta.

Foot position

In the repertory you will find a rubric where Cicuta is the only remedy at the 1st grade: walks on the external side of the foot.

Observing several Cicuta subjects has enabled me to go deeper into the meaning of this symptom. It is not so much a way of walking, but rather of keeping the foot on the external side, varus-like. When you meet teenagers going through an existential crisis, disappointed  in humanity, who like to sit anywhere with their feet in that position, do not give Staph, nor Nat-mur, but Cicuta. This is typical of the remedy.

Clinical case

Here is a typical case of a decompensated form as reported by our friend, Dr. Emmanuel Blesch of Yutz.

“Strung out”

Yves is a guitar maker; a friend suggested that he would come for  a consultation. He is exhausted; tall, dark complexion, sparse hair on the frontline, he comes into my small office, glancing furtively and anxiously. Feeling uneasy, he sits in front of me with his feet strangely positioned on the external side (varus) and not flat on the floor. The look is gentle, a bit anxious, he looks tired; he has rings around his eyes in spite of a smiling air. Right away I find him likeable and the contact is easily made.

His professional life is not simple: although he loves his work, making string instruments is a meticulous work and the pitiless law-market makes it unprofitable. He confides to me that his banker was due to lend him money but in the last minute, he retracted; all this upset his plans and he was stuck with anticipated purchases contracts, a ludicrous situation he cannot cope with. He wants to leave everything, he is fed up and his vision of the present world has become very pessimistic; he smokes enormously, sleeps badly, drinks coffee; he is discouraged, considering the misery of current events with compassion and weariness. Further on in the conversation, he tells me that he went to India a long time ago, where he had enjoyed the “freedom” and “selflessness” aspects.

He prescribed Cicuta 30CH.

In the next few days, he told me that everything has cleared up; he is more detached from his problems, hardly smokes and is making many plans.  Two months later he comes back saying he feels fragile again, due to court affairs not completely settled and which bring back anxiety.

New Cicuta prescription.

Since then, no news, good news !

In this case, the major symptom for this man is his need to break away from an unbearable and crazy world.

Conclusions

Now that we have studied Cicuta in detail, as always, I dread abusive prescriptions of this remedy, in cases where Natrum muriaticum, Sulphur or Staphysagria would be a better indication.

Cicuta is a very valuable remedy which can be surprising if one knows how to track it down. Indeed, I think that further observations in the future will increase our knowledge of this very interesting remedy, which may resemble some others, but which has its specific personality.

It can be added to the following rubrics :

• Anticipation : Cicuta (2nd degree)
• Atheist : Cicuta
• Anger with indignation, following : Cicuta
• Disappointment/deception, following : Cicuta
• Music, sensitive to : Cicuta
• Fastidious: Cicuta
• Salivation, during sleep : Cicuta
• Dreams, blood, missing teeth : Cicuta