2.1.3 Lithium phosphoricum, Case 1An 8 year old boy suffers from diarrhoea. The stools smell badly. He has a high temperature (40 degrees C), with vomiting and apathy. This often happens around 1 o’clock in the morning. Sometimes the diarrhoea is alternated by constipation and pains around the navel. He has a feeling as if water is sloshing in his stomach. All this is being caused by problems at school. He feels he is under a lot of pressure. He has to learn to write with his right hand, although he is lefthanded. Learning in itself is no problem for him, but he gets easily distracted. One moment he is doing very well, the next moment his performance is far below standard. He needs strict rules. he doesn’t like to talk about these things because it makes him feel he isn’t good enough.
He loves computer games, he is a computer ‘fanatic’.
he has petechia on his cheeks and upper eyelids. His nose gets blocked when he lies on his back and it makes him grunt like a piglet.
AnalysisThe causes being learning problems at school makes us think of
Phosphorus. But an added typical symptom is that he will perform very well one moment and very badly the next. This strong alternation makes us think of
Stage 1, and of
Lithium in particular. The alternation between having to write with the right hand, but being left handed on the whole also fits with
Lithium. This leads us to
Lithium phosphoricum.
Other Phosphoricum symptoms: high fever, petechia, apathy. Other
Lithium symptoms: diarrhoea alternating with constipation.
ReactionOne month after
Lithium phosphoricum 1M he is much happier at school. His concentration is much better and his level of performance is much more even. His complaints have disappeared.