A 30 years old female Mrs. S. S (PIN Number withheld), visited our centre with the complaints of severe pain throughout the body. She had been suffering from these complaints since the last 3 years. It had increased in intensity since last 2 – 3 months. She would get pain in any part of the body, anytime. The pain would remain for 7 – 8 hours. It was a pulsating type of pain. The pain would increase under stress, exertion, irregular sleep, loud noise etc. She would be relieved by hot fomentation. She had been prescribed pain killers, anxiolytics and anti depressants, but it did not seem to give relief.

She also had an associated complaint of under-active thyroid since 2 years. She was taking thyroid supplements.

There was no diagnosis; however a doctor had said fibromyalgia! One doctor had said that these are neuralgic pains, associated with anxiety.

We had to take a very detailed case to understand the real problem.

The pain was the presenting complaints, what lay beneath?

What was the underlying turmoil?

The enquiry was conducted in that aspect.

She was the eldest in her family, consisting of parents and a brother and sister. She had done engineering from an esteemed institute where she had been a topper. Her father was an engineer and owned a chemical factory in Jharkhand. Her mother was a housewife. Her siblings were completing their education. Basically she was from Jharkhand, but she had come to Mumbai for a job. Her in-laws stayed in Jharkhand. At present she was living with her husband who was working in IT industry as a software engineer. She herself was working in another IT company.

When her life situation was inquired, she described it as stressful. In her childhood there were severe financial issues which were stressful for her, as she being the eldest had to take responsibility at a younger age. Her relations with her parents were disturbed. She had developed low confidence and become a negative thinker. She was helpful to others. She was honest enough to reveal of a past love relation which was disappointing for her. He had promised marriage, and later on he ditched her, “I was cheated”. This incident had affected her deeply. She had become sad, low and depressed. Now she was an anxious person, getting tensed easily. She would feel suffocated; she would have giddiness and vomiting when ever she was tense.

She described herself as sensitive and if any one did not listen to her view point, or not listen to her suggestion, she would feel as if they hurt her self respect.

She will feel happy when her husband talked affectionately and then she would forget every thing. Till then, she will brood and sulk.

All her family members were apparently healthy.

Her appetite was average. She had craving for sour food. She did not like sweets. She had profuse, generalized perspiration especially on the face, palms, and soles. She was chilly and sensitive to drafts. She had started with alternate diarrhea and constipation since past 2 months. Her sleep was disturbed with nightmares and she had a habit of talking in the sleep.

Her case was studied in detail by Dr. Shah and she was prescribed a research based medicine along with Nat Mur 30C.

In the first follow up she reported 25% improvement in her neuralgic pains. Her anxiety was mildly decreased.

In the next follow up after 4 months there was significant improvement in her complaints of neuralgic pains and anxiety.

She reported after a year for some other minor ailment. When inquired about the neuralgic pains she said that they were almost better by 70%. Her anxiety had gradually reduced.

Uploaded on 16th Nov 2011 by Dr. Megha