Meeting of minds in psychiatry and homeopathy: an example in social phobia

Communication between homeopaths and the biomedical community can be enhanced by an interpretation of the homeopathic repertory in light of current medical diagnostic terminology. This report reviews the current, conventional symptom formulation for social phobia, the third most common psychiatric diagnosis in the US community. Eighty-three rubrics in the homeopathic materia medica corresponding to symptoms of social phobia were identified and then used in a computerized repertorizing program to identify potential homeopathic remedies for social phobia. Although Kent's Repertory describes many symptoms of social phobia, the terminology should be updated, and there is a surprising lack of information about some key rubrics. Clinical judgment is always needed to interpret the significance of symptoms that could be caused by more than one pathogenic mechanism. Although many of the remedies traditionally thought to be useful in treating patients with social phobia do indeed appear in the computerized Repertory search, additional remedies emerged, including both polycrests and small remedies, which may have a place in treating this disorder.