Case Taking - quotes
ďA properly taken case is more than half curedÖĒ -
Boericke, M.D. 
- Start with a clear mind and be polite. 
- Let the patient know you are concerned for their health and that homeopathy
will bring fundamental constitutional improvement (immune system strength)
to them. 
- It is of utmost importance that the interviewer be interested and concerned
with the welfare of the patient. 
- There should be no implication of judgment by the homeopath. Advice should
not be offered and moral injunctions should be avoided. 
- Restrain your conversation. Let them tell their case their way without
- We are told in our allopathic studies not to believe the patient, ask as
few questions as possible and believe only what we see. The homeopath must
do his best to create an atmosphere of confidence and benevolence and try
to comprehend the human being who comes to be helped. 
- Extensive description of the precise kind of information needed in homeopathy
and particularly the use of homeopathic questionnaires should be avoided.
This makes the patient focus on insignificant details. 
- Ask What brings you to see me? or Tell me what is that troubles you, and
then be silent. 
- When they have finished, ask ďWhat else?Ē Keep the talkative patient on
track with small comments and the quiet patient talking with questions like
ďAnything else aboutÖ?Ē 
- Elicit the more delicate symptoms by commenting about the beneficial way
that remedies affect the entire person and the importance of knowing the whole
- After the patientís story go back to each item and get the details that
didnít tell you such as the modalities. Question them about any they have
left out. 
- Refer to Schmidtís wonderful questionnaire after the patientís story. 
- Donít ask yes-or-no questions. (ďAre you thirsty?Ē) 
- Donít suggest an answer (ďYou donít stand the cold very well, do you?Ē)
- Donít confirm a remedy that has come to mind with questions. Schmidt calls
this the torpedo method or torpillage. (ďAre you generally worse between 4
and 8 p.m.?) [1, 3]
- Donít ask the patient to choose between two alternatives. Let them find
their own choice. (Do you prefer dry or wet weather?) 
- When questioning about one symptom, finish it before moving to another one.
Skipping around confuses the patient and scatters your ideas. 
- If a question brings no answer let it alone, for he does not know or has
not noticed. Questions giving a choice of answers are defective. 
- When asking what illnesses the patient has had and how he recovered, pay
attention to whether they fully recovered or they say ďhasnít been well since.Ē
- Keep an outline of questions handy until you know it. 
- Go after the more delicate symptoms of mental and emotional states at the
end after you have been with the patient for awhile to gain confidence and
better details. 
- If you have the ability to get a close family memberís or friendís information
about the patient without making the patient nervous then you may learn more.
- Verify symptoms with cross-questions when you donít think the patient well
understood or well answered the question. (He feels worse after meals... Ask
ďIf you have an important matter to decide, or a delicate letter to write,
or some important call to make, would you do it at 2 p.m.?)
- Accept no diagnostic suggestions or pathological theories or former opinion
of other physicians as these are deceptive guides for the selection of a drug.
- Observe closely: 
- The personality of the patient.
- His apparent state of mind both in himself and in relation to the
doctor (whether depressed, shy, suspicious, secretive, afraid, ashamed
- His apparent physical status (signs of disease in gait, complexion,
difficulty in breathing, etc.).
- Traits of character as shown in dress, cleanliness, neatness, pride,
- The chief signs are those symptoms that are most constant, most striking,
and most annoying to the patient. The physician marks them down as the strongest,
the principal features of the picture. The most singular, most uncommon signs
furnish the characteristic, the distinctive, the peculiar features. 
- Gathering concomitants that all point to the simillimum will create a true
characteristic, otherwise just ignore them. An affected organ may only be
able to show concomitants which then becomes the only guide for selection
of a remedy. 
- Most subjective symptoms are so indefinite or so common that they have little
importance. If it occurs in an unusual place, thatís important. 
- A reply without a change in expression regarding likes and dislikes doesnít
really indicate a symptom. 
- Notice any alternation of symptom groups, such as bronchial symptoms, skin
manifestations, gastric, and rheumatic complaints. Also seasonal and periodical
- Listening actively means using your imagination and sensitivity to live
the experience of the patient. This pondering of what makes the symptom in
the patient will allow you to ask questions that further reveal the symptom.
- We cannot depend upon our memory in taking the case, and getting the case
properly before us for analysis. The picture must be preserved in indelible
form so that you can review it without leaving out any important symptom.
- Always get the patientís age, occupation, marital status, hair color, eye
color, complexion, any peculiarity of the patient as to form, appearance,
size, etc. 
- Get relatives death causes, consumption, asthma, cancer, tumors, scrofula,
hives, erysipelas, skin diseases of any kind, or any other chronic complaint,
or any peculiarity of either side of the family. 
- Record all the important points in the words of the patient, both in what
the patient says and in what he himself observes. 
- Put the symptoms in a column at the left of his paper, leaving at least
an inch blank between the items to be subsequently filled in as the patient
reverts to that subject or later, when the physician questions about it. He
may prefer to put facts pertaining to history on one sheet or in one column,
those pertaining to actual physical symptoms in another, and mentals in a
third, but this requires experience and adeptness. It is safer for the beginner
to list them all as they come and sort them later in the working out of the
- Arrange your record of symptoms into three columns. The first one contains
the dates and prescriptions. The second contains the distinct symptoms as
headings and the third are the modalities. Otherwise, itís defective. 
- Put a mark by or underline the symptom that you need to go back and ask
about later to get more details or verify. 
- Use underlining to prioritize the symptomís clarity, intensity and spontaneity
in the following manner: 
- No underlining: Symptoms are hazy, not given spontaneously, and not
perceived as very intense by the patient.
- One underline: Symptoms of greater clarity and greater intensity,
yet still elicited only upon questioning.
- Two underlines: Symptoms of great clarity, moderate intensity, and
- Three underlines: symptoms with the highest clarity, great intensity,
and given entirely spontaneously by the patient.
- You should have a bound book. Use the left hand page for recording symptoms
and the right-hand page for the modalities. 
- Discount symptoms to be expected from the pathology present. Thus anxiety
in heart disease, parśsthesia in anśmia, údema in nephritis, hunger in thyroid
and gastric ulcer, and depression in constipation. 
- If you are dealing with an acute condition, donít dip into the chronic symptoms
that have been present at other times. The chronic will retreat in an acute
explosion and at the end of the acute attack, the chronic will return instead
of what people think is the aftermath of the acute symptoms.
- Note results of previous diet, local and physical treatment, for often the
true symptomatology is obscured by previous treatment and a period of observation
is desirable before homeopathic treatment is instigated. 
5. Time management
- End the appointment after the patientís story and continue in another session
if necessary unless they are in acute pain or distress. 
- A medical history, physical, and lab tests should be done at the end of
- The maximum number of chronic cases that you can do in a single day is hardly
two or three. 
1. A Brief Study Course in Homoeopathy,
2. The Study of Materia Medica and Taking the Case, C.M. Boger, M.D.
3. The Art of Interrogation, Pierre Schmidt, M.D.
4. What the Doctor Needs to Know in Order to Make a Successful Prescription,
James T. Kent, M.D.
5. Lectures on Homeopathic Philosophy, James T.
6. A Compend of the Principles of Homoeopathy for Students in Medicine,
Garth Boericke, M.D.
7. The Principles and Art of Cure by Homeopathy, Herbert A. Roberts, M.D.
8. The Lesser Writings of Samuel Hahnemann, Samuel Hahnemann
9. The Science of Homeopathy, George Vithoulkas
10. Chronic Disease - Its Cause and Cure, P.N. Banerjee