A prospective comparative study to analyze the effects of Berberis vulgaris in acute management of Arthralgia by sublingual and external route of administration

Arthralgia is a symptom of the chronic manifestation of the diseases. Usually homoeopathy is overlooked for pain management but it has a very wide action in acute cases as our master Dr Hahnemann has mentioned in aphorisms 72 & 73. Many homeopathic medicines used for various types of pain like back pain, dental pain, labor pains, and neuralgia. A severe acute trauma can respond to the same homeopathic medicine in nearly all individuals.

Many literatures has shown that Berberis vulgaris acts in gouty constitutions or rheumatic affections. The choice of administration route; based on practical aspects and patient’s consent. The drug has to cross several cellular barriers (or membranes) and diffuse in intercellular spaces to reach the bloodstream. The sublingual routes allow drugs to be delivered directly into the systemic circulation, thus avoiding the portal vein system and liver filtration. These drugs quickly cross the multilayered epithelium of the tongue; this muscular organ is highly vascularized, thus allowing fast absorption and rapid appearance of therapeutic effects. Several factors influence skin absorption, the most important being skin integrity, thickness and hydration, and local blood flow.

Skin is the largest organ of the body so the action of the medicines took place by rubbing on surface hence stimulate the inner layer of skin i.e. Dermis specially the superficial papillary layer which projects into epidermis and contain blood vessels, lymphatics and nerve fibres. Rubbing-in appears in favour the action of medicine only in this way that friction makes the skin more sensitive and the living fibres thereby more capable of feeling, as it were, the medicinal power and of communicating to the whole organism this health-affecting sensation. Dr Hahnemann spokes about external application in aphorism 254 of 6th edition of organon.