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Iodum purum (Iod.)

Iodum purum (Iod.) appears in the repertory in 626 rubrics. Of these, 42 are single-remedy rubrics in which only this remedy is listed, and 25 are small rubrics with no more than two other remedies. The emphasis lies on Anxiety, Fear, Children, Sadness, and Mania. The overall picture is that of a person who can endure only in motion: standing still, fasting, and rest make the anxiety grow, activity relieves it.

Anxiety in stillness

The guiding sentence stands in a single-remedy rubric: "Anxiety – keeps still, remains motionless, when she/he". Another names sitting, in which the anxiety abates, and small rubrics record amelioration from physical activity. The anxiety is often without graspable content or nameless. But it also rises on certain occasions: when fasting and on an empty stomach ("Anxiety – fasting, when"); the fear grows in a warm room. Fear and excitement set in when the person is hungry, and sadness accompanies eating and digestion. The body acts like a regulator that sets the mood according to the state of food and movement.

Restlessness and drive

Correspondingly there is restlessness. The person can neither sit nor sleep at night, runs about at night, and in mania has an urgent need for occupation: "Mania – busy, must be constantly". Even the fear of insanity depends on motion, namely on the worry of falling into it at rest. Mental exertion aggravates, physical exertion ameliorates. Speaking becomes careless and thoughtless, the answers loud, and yet there is the opposite rubric of slow, laborious answering. A darker rubric belongs in this picture: "Killing, desire to – rest, in". The impulse to kill a woman appears in rest; rest would thus be not recovery but danger.

Children

Among Children (66 rubrics) stand failure to thrive with a tendency to marasmus and retarded development of the glands. A single-remedy rubric names the child who does not want anyone to approach. The obstinacy appears with weeping, even at friendly address: "Weeping – spoken to, when – kindly". One can see in this a sensitivity to attention that corresponds to the need for motion and withdrawal.

Individual delusions

The delusions are few and concrete: the idea of being after fasting, the fear of falling when walking, and, as a peculiarity, "Delusions – iodine vapors, imagines". Added is a withdrawal in anxiety: the person avoids company, even that of the physician.

Summary

The picture of the rubrics is that of incessant motion that runs ahead of the anxiety. Whoever pauses is overtaken; whoever works, walks, or eats stays calm. The failure to thrive in children and the impulses in rest can be read as two sides of the same lack of reserve.

A reference work for professionals; it does not replace diagnosis or treatment.