# Colchicum

## Remedy Classification
- **Type:** Herbal Remedy
- **Miasm:** Psoric Miasm
- **Temperament:** Chilly
- **Aggravation Time:** Morning

## Keynote Indications
Colchicum is best known as a remedy for gout and rheumatism.  It markedly affects 
muscles, fibrous tissue, serous membranes, and joints, especially the small ones. 
Colch. relieves gouty paroxysms. Red, hot and swollen parts. Tearing pain, worse in the evening, at night, and 
from touch. Stubbing the toes hurts exceedingly. 
Many joints are affected at the same time. Small, rapidly shifting areas of severe pain, but little swelling. Pains 
are tearing, digging, drawing. Tingling, crawling. Stitching, jerk ing, drawing pains in muscles, periosteum and 
joints. Pains worse from mental exertion, emotions, slightest touch and vibrations. 
There is the irritability and aversion to touch so common in gout, pain in small joints and especially the great 
toes. Affects the periosteum and synovial membranes of joints. 
The stomach is acutely disordered, nausea and vomiting. Nausea at thought, sight or smell of food, 
especially of cooking. Dysentery. Uric acid diathesis,  pale yellow sediment like fine flour. Urine black as 
ink. Urine loaded with albumen and casts. 
Extreme relaxation of the muscular system, the head falls forward on the chest or falls back when the patient 
is raised from the pillow, arms fall helpless by the side. Great prostration, internal coldness. 
Tendency to collapse. Moist collapse, due to dehydration, as after repeated vomiting or  purging. Cardiac and 
arthritic disorders. Dropsy. Hydropericardium, hydrothorax, ascites, hydrometra. The patient must rest and lie 
down. Cannot lie on left side. 
Effects of night-watching and over study. 
Shocks as from electricity through one half 
 
 
of body. Bad effects from suppressed sweat. Dreams of mice.

## Modalities (Aggravations / Ameliorations)
Better from warmth. Better rest. Better doubling up. Better sitting. Better stooping. Better after 
stools. Better lying quietly. Better open air. Oppression and colic better bending forward. Worse from motion 
(Bry.). Can't lie on left side. Worse touch, vibrations. Worse stubbing toes. Worse bodily or mental exertion. 
Worse from stretching. Worse checked sweat. Worse vomiting. Worse loss of sleep. Worsefrom smell of 
food. Worse at night, evening. Worse sundown to sunrise. Worse from changing weather. Worse cold, 
autumn. Symptoms generally worse cold damp, worse getting wet, bathing, living in damp dwellings,  
changes to damp weather. Worse from rising up in bed.

## Symptoms by System

### Mind
- Mind befogged, but answers cor rectly.
- Intellect beclouded, though he gives correct answers.
- Mind 
generally distracted.
- Can read, but cannot understand a short sentence.
- Memory weak.
- Weakness of memory 
from fatigue.
- Deficiency of ideas.
- Disorders in comprehension and association of ideas.
- Lacks words to 
express ideas.
- When writing, forgets syllables and entire words.
- Confounds objects.
- Very irritable with the pains (Cham.).
- Pains worse mental exer tion or by emotions.
- Intolerant of pain, his 
suffering seem unen durable .
- Depressed, irritable and sensitive.
- Peevish, nothing satisfies him.
- Discontented, not satisfied with anything.
- Misdeeds of others make him quite beside himself.
- Extreme impressions  such as bright light, strong odors, contact aggravate him.
- Sensitive to all external 
impressions.
- Hatred of odors.
- Frequent starting and trembling are felt through body.
- Delirium during headache.
- Starting during sleep.
- Delusions, sees mice, hears noises.
- Vision heightened, but 
intellectual faculties dulled.
- Carphologia.
- Sardonic laughing.
- Indifference, doesn't complain unless questioned, 
then says nothing of his condition.
- Absence of apprehension, no fear of death.
- Abdomen - Mucus colitis, after 
dysentery.
- Pain in transverse colon.
- Distention of abdomen.
- Distended cecum and ascending colon.
- Fullness and 
continuous rumbling.
- Borborygmi.
- Colicky pains.
- Colic, worse eating, after flatulent food, with great 
distension, better bending double.
- Icy coldness of abdomen with colic.
- Ascites with fold over the pubic 
region.
- Surface of abdomen hotter than rest of body and extremely sensitive to touch.
- Pulsation in abdomen.
- Pain over liver.
- Tearing pain about sigmoid flexure of colon, worse pressure and at night.
- Grip ing pains.
- Mind befogged, but answers cor rectly.
- Intellect beclouded, though he gives correct answers.
- Mind 
generally distracted.
- Can read, but cannot understand a short sentence.
- Memory weak.
- Weakness of memory 
from fatigue.
- Deficiency of ideas.
- Disorders in comprehension and association of ideas.
- Lacks words to 
express ideas.
- When writing, forgets syllables and entire words.
- Confounds objects.
- Very irritable with the pains (Cham.).
- Pains worse mental exer tion or by emotions.
- Intolerant of pain, his 
suffering seem unen durable .
- Depressed, irritable and sensitive.
- Peevish, nothing satisfies him.
- Discontented, not satisfied with anything.
- Misdeeds of others make him quite beside himself.
- Extreme impressions  such as bright light, strong odors, contact aggravate him.
- Sensitive to all external 
impressions.
- Hatred of odors.
- Frequent starting and trembling are felt through body.
- Delirium during headache.
- Starting during sleep.
- Delusions, sees mice, hears noises.
- Vision heightened, but 
intellectual faculties dulled.
- Carphologia.
- Sardonic laughing.
- Indifference, doesn't complain unless questioned, 
then says nothing of his condition.
- Absence of apprehension, no fear of death.
- Abdomen - Mucus colitis, after 
dysentery.
- Pain in transverse colon.
- Distention of abdomen.
- Distended cecum and ascending colon.
- Fullness and 
continuous rumbling.
- Borborygmi.
- Colicky pains.
- Colic, worse eating, after flatulent food, with great 
distension, better bending double.
- Icy coldness of abdomen with colic.
- Ascites with fold over the pubic 
region.
- Surface of abdomen hotter than rest of body and extremely sensitive to touch.
- Pulsation in abdomen.
- Pain over liver.
- Tearing pain about sigmoid flexure of colon, worse pressure and at night.
- Grip ing pains.

### Vertigo
- Vertigo while sitting, after walking.
- Vertigo on rising.
- Vision - Spots before eyes.
- Variations in visual acuity.
- Dim vision after reading.
- Lost vision, for a minute or 
two on getting out of bed.
- COMMENTS - Coldness in the abdomen, stomach, and limbs.
- Profuse cold sweat, marked chills with or without 
periodicity.
- Burning in the cavities, especially the abdo men.
- Sensation of icy coldness or burning in stomach.
- Bloated abdomen.
- Diarrhea.
- Cholera.
- Dysentery with bloody stools and mucus.
- Autumn dysentery.
- Spring rheumatism.
- Dysentery 
and rheumatism are exceedingly painful.
- Stools have jelly-like mucus, membranous shreds.
- Rice-water stool, 
with hippocratic face, coldness, cramps, prostration.
- Stool accompanied by violent tenesmus.
- Protrusion of 
rectum.
- Affinity for the kidneys.
- Kidney failu re with high uric acid.
- Effective for gout and joint conditions.
- In gouty 
diabetes, the uric acid reappears as the sugar disappears.
- Rheumatism can appear on disappearance of uric 
acid from urine.
- Arthritis in the small joints.
- Stiffness that's better with  motion (Rhus-t.).
- Arthritis, worse motion (Nux -v., Bry.).
- Conditions worse in the autumn, damp weather and change of weather (Dulc., Rhus-t., Nat-s.).
- Cold and chilly, 
dampness penetrates.
- Ailments from getting wet and chilled, changes to damp weather.
- Oppression and anxiety in the heart, better by walking.
- Stitches about heart and loss of consciousness.
- Pericarditis on the disappearance of symptoms from limbs.
- All functions, mental and bodily, are slow.
- Nutrition and digestion are at a stand and  
Colchicum autumnale yet the patient does not emaciate rapidly.
- Great prostration, debility from loss of sleep, the prostration of typhoid fever and typhoid states.
- Extreme 
disinclination to move, worse from motion.
- Convulsions, cramps and restlessness.
- Pains are very acute and 
unendurable.
- Very sensitive and irritable.
- Cannot endure strong smells.
- Smell of food nauseates.
- Morning sickness with 
sensitive to the smell of food (Sep.).
- Nash recorded a striking cure by Colch.
- 200c.
- The patient was an old woman who was vomiting blood and 
passing as many as sixteen bloody stools in the day.
- The doors of the room had to be mostcarefully kept 
closed to prevent any smell of cooking reaching her as that immediately provoked nausea.
- Guernsey noted that “after evacuation, as in dysenteric, there is generally relief but in typhus fever, sometimes 
a terrific spasmodic pain of the anal sphincter comes on after stool.
- This may occur in diarrhea.”  
The rice -water stool, hippocratic face, coldness, cramps, and prostration, led Salzer t o use it for certain 
epidemics of Asiatic cholera.
- J.
- R.
- Simson of Tonawanda, N.
- Y., cured a very bad case of typhoid presenting symp toms including “his left 
pupil was contracted so as to be almost imperceptible, while the right was dilated to the full ex tent.” This is 
peculiar to Colch.
- and no remedy relieved the patient until he received this.
- B.
- Simmons called attention to the pow erlessness of the affected parts, especially when occurring in leuco -
phlegmatic subjects and when there is edematous swelling of the parts.
- He cured a woman, 36, mother of two children, of leuco -phlegmatic tempera ment.
- who complained of 
rheumatism of the hands, which were swollen, joints stiff and powerless, pain as if bruised, the arms being 
affected but in less degree.
- “She was unable to brush her own hair, not so much from the pain as from the 
extreme weakness and powerlessness of the parts affected.
- ” 
T.
- F.
- Allen gave “Tingling in finger-nails” as characteristic of Colch., no other remedy 
has it as strong.

### Head
- Difficulty in moving h ead.
- Creeping in forehead and over head.
- Pressive head ache, better supper, 
warmth, lying quiet.
- Headache chiefly frontal and temporal, but also occipital and in nape of neck, worse 
afternoon and evening.
- Aching in occiput, worse mental effort.
- Neuralgic, tearing pain in scalp in small spots.
- Headache over left eye, worse open air.
- Hemicrania, either of right or left side, changing about.
- Very violent headache, coming in evening and lasting until morning.
- Hot forehead.
- Forehead covered 
with cold sweat.
- Great falling off of hair.
- Difficulty in moving h ead.
- Creeping in forehead and over head.
- Pressive head ache, better supper, 
warmth, lying quiet.
- Headache chiefly frontal and temporal, but also occipital and in nape of neck, worse 
afternoon and evening.
- Aching in occiput, worse mental effort.
- Neuralgic, tearing pain in scalp in small spots.
- Headache over left eye, worse open air.
- Hemicrania, either of right or left side, changing about.
- Very violent headache, coming in evening and lasting until morning.
- Hot forehead.
- Forehead covered 
with cold sweat.
- Great falling off of hair.

### Eyes
- Eyes sunken, staring, hollow, con gested, protruding.
- Diffused inflammation and congestion.
- Pain in 
and around the eyeball extending to occiput.
- Eyes half 
open.
- Visible contraction in lower lid.
- Acrid tears, worse in open air.
- Violent tearing pain in eyes.
- Edges of lids 
red and burning.
- Soft cataract.
- Kerato -iritis, with pus in anterior chamber of eye.
- Rheumatic iritis with great 
soreness of eyeballs.
- Stye on left lower lids.
- Ulceration of meibo mian glands.
- Pupils unequal, left pupil 
contracted.

### Ears
- Itching, crawling in ears.
- Dryness of ears.
- Ears feel stopped up with roaring.
- Tingling of ears as after 
being frosted.
- Sharp, shooting, below right tragus.
- Ear ache with lacerating pains.
- Earache with discharge.
- Hearing very acute.

### Face
- Edematous swelling, cheeks red, hot, sweaty.
- Edema of lids and face.
- Pinched, sunken as in collapse.
- Sickly, sad, suffering expression.
- Pain in facial muscles, moving about.
- Tingling and edematous swelling, 
cheeks red, hot, sweaty.
- Pain behind angle of right lower jaw.
- Very irritable with the pains (Cham.).
- Tingling 
in face as after being frozen.
- Cheeks, lips and eyelids purple.
- Risus sardonicus.
- Blotchy papular rash on face.

### Mouth
- Sensation of warmth and dryness in mouth.
- Cracked lips.
- Thick, brownish coating on lips, teeth and 
tongue.
- Taste, flat, bitter.
- Flow of saliva with a sense of dryness.
- Mouth hangs open.
- Heat in the mouth with 
thirst.
- Profuse salivation with dryness of throat.
- Affection of sal ivary glands in Bright's disease.
- Cold breath.
- Lossofspeech.
- Inflammation and redness of palate and fauces.
- Nose - Nostrils dry and black.
- Smell morbidly acute.
- Odors of eggs, meat nauseate even to fainting.
- Strong odors make him quite beside himself.
- Smell so acute that he smells odors others can't smell.
- Obstinate coryza, discharge thin, tenacious, never watery.
- Sore pain in septum.
- Nosebleed, evenings.
- Sneezing, with crawling sensation in nose.
- Perspiration - Copious, cold sweat, without relief.
- Copious sour sweat suddenly com ing and going with 
rheumatism.
- Sweat 
cold on face.
- Sour sweat, nightly.
- Clammy sweat on whole surface, with low tem perature of skin, in acute 
rheumatism.
- Acid reaction of sweat and urine.
- Suppressed sweat.

### Throat
- Much greenish, thin mucus in the throat, comes involuntarily in the mouth.
- Voice hoarse, ordeeperthan 
usual.
- Hoarse ness in morning, with roughness of throat.
- Itching in larynx and trachea.
- Throat as if dry.
- Constriction of esophagus.
- Tickling as if coryz a were setting in, inducing cough and clearing throat.
- Tonsils 
inflamed and swollen, spots covered with pus, swallow ing difficult.
- Heat in pharynx and whole length of 
esophagus.
- Tongue - Glossitis.
- Tongue burns.
- Tongue, bright red, heavy, stiff and numb, protruded with difficulty.
- Brown 
tongue.
- Loss of sensibility in tongue.
- Tongue cold.
- Tearing, burning and sticking pain in tongue.
- Tongue coated white.
- Urine - Urine, hot, highly colored, watery, black sediment.
- Albuminuria.
- Profuse secretion of urine.
- Ur ine of 
sour smell and acid reaction.
- Dark, scanty or suppressed urine.
- Pale yellow, greenish urine.
- Urine turbid, 
leaves an orange-colored ring in vessel.
- Bloody, brown, black, inky urine.
- Whitish sediment in urine.

### Chest
- Violent cutting pains, interruptirig breathing.
- Stinging and tearing pains in muscles of chest.
- Chest as 
if squeezed by a tight band.
- Tensive feeling in chest.
- Sharp pain in chest on inspiration and coughing.
- Lacerating, tearing pain in chest.
- Lanci nating pain, as with a knife, in right side of chest.
- Dull stitches in 
posterior part of thorax during expiration.
- Pleurodynia from catching cold or from living in damp dwellings.
- Serous effusion in chest with rheumatic and gouty persons.
- Hydrothorax, with marked dyspnea and edema of 
limbs.
- Spitting blood after chest injuries.
- Rheumatism of pectoral muscles.
- Constitutions - Complaints of old people, asthmatic people.
- It corresponds to the gouty constitution.
- Leuco-
phlegmatic and melancholic, venous constitutions, uric acid diathesis.
- Cough - Frequent, short, dry cough from tickling in larynx.
- Cough at night, compelling him to sit up, excited by 
scraping in chest, with much expectoration.
- Cough at night, with involuntary spurting of urine.
- Slight cough 
with coryza.
- Cardiac dyspnea.
- Heart disease, following rheumatism.
- Anxiety in region of heart.
- Violent palpitations 
with oppression of chest.
- Pressure and oppression in the region of the heart, better walking.
- Cutting or 
stinging at hear t, weak heart.
- Trembling in precordial region, with sticking pains.
- Sound of heart becomes 
weaker, pulse of low tension.
- Heart disease and rheumatism.
- Hydropericardium.
- Pericarditis, with severe 
pain, oppression and dyspnea.
- Effusion into pericardium.
- Wea k heart.
- Pulse not felt.
- Pulse is thready, 
imperceptible.
- Kidneys - Kidney failure with high uric acid.
- Uremia.
- Burning in urinary passages before urination.
- More 
urging, more dis charge of urine.
- Diabetes.
- Nephritis with extreme pain  in region of kidneys.
- Burning in 
urethra, as if urine were very warm.
- Tickling burning in urethra and discharge of a few drops, after urination.
- Raw pain, in urethra during urination.
- Chest seems squeezed by a hand.
- Night cough with involuntary spurting of urine.
- Great dyspnea.
- Cardiac dyspnea.
- Dyspnea with palpitations of heart from 11 a.m.
- to 3 a.m.
- Lies in bed gasping for 
breath, with pericarditis.
- Difficult breathing, better bending forward.
- Accelerated and audible breathing.
- Slow, 
irregular breathing.
- Asthmat ic breathing with moist sound.
- Asthma with hydrothorax or hydro pericardium.
- Asthma with dropsy of lower limbs.
- Hurried breathing with groans.
- Rapid and short, quick breathing.

### Stomach & Abdomen
- Gastric affections before and during an attack of rheumatism.
- Burning pains.
- Eructations, with 
burning in stomach.
- Icy coldness of stomach with colic.
- Pain in stomach and flatulence.
- Dry mouth, tongue 
burns, gums and teeth pain.
- Profuse salivary secretion.
- Gouty gastralgia.
- Gastralgia from sudden suppressed 
sweat.
- Stomach as if full and swollen, as if he had eaten too much.
- Nausea and retching.
- Nausea and 
inclination to vomit, caused by swallowing saliva.
- Nausea from odor of 
fat meat, eggs, fish.
- Vomiting of mucus, bile and food, worse any motion.
- Vomit ing of the water he drank.
- Vomiting and purging of rice-water stools, with thirst.
- Vomiting first food, then fluid.
- Stools - Changeable stools, greenish, reddish, excoriating, slightly sour smelling, copious, frequent, watery 
or bilious.
- Stools are painful, scanty, transparent, jelly -like mucus.
- Bloody stools.
- Stools scanty, discharged 
only by har d straining, even if soft, with pain in lumbar region.
- Stools contain white shreddy particles in 
large quantities.
- Stools frequently orange-yellow, slimy with bright-yellow flakes.
- Scanty stool with tenesmus, 
salivation and copious urination.
- Stools pass insensibly, involuntary.
- Feces mixed with light blue matter.
- Profuse watery stools in hot, damp weather.
- Teeth - Gums and teeth painful.
- Teeth very sensitive when pressing them together.
- Grinding of teeth.
- Teeth 
feel too long.
- Tearing pain in roots of teet h and gums.
- Toothache, worse cold and immediately after warm 
things.
- Toothache, worse at night.
- Temperature - Chilliness and coldness running through all limbs down back.
- Shud dering and creeping chills 
in isolated parts.
- Chills even near warm stove, intermingled with short flushes of heat.
- Cold sensation of head 
and limbs, in acute rheumatism.
- Dry heat at night with excessive thirst.
- Dry heat of whole body, constantly 
increasing and palpitations, thirst.
- Body hot, limbs cold.
- Intermittent, fever.
- Gags from mere mention of food.
- Craving for various things but averse to them when smelling them.
- Loathes the smell or sight of food,  better lying quietly.
- Nausea and anxi ety from smell of cooking, or from 
 
 
fat food.
- Nausea from odor of fat meat, eggs, fish.
- Eggs disagree cause derangement of stomach.
- Tastelessness of food.
- Thirst for effervescent, aerated waters, alcoholic beverages.
- No thirst.

### Urinary & Genital
- Edema of scrotum.
- Tearing in glands and left spermatic cord.
- Itching at prepuce and orifice of urethra.
- Chordee after gonorrhea.
- Menses too early and scanty.
- Itching of genitals.
- Sensation of swelling in vulva and clitoris.
- Coldness 
of thighs after menses.
- Feverish restlessness in last month of pregnancy.
- Intense boring or tensive pain in 
ovary, must bend double, with great restlessness.
- Dropsy of uterus from suppression of menses.
- Hemorrhage 
of uterus.
- Morning sickness with sensitivity to the smell of food (Sep.).
- Puerperal fever.

### Extremities
- Limbs, lame, weak, tingling, cold.
- Arthritic pain, patient screams with pain on touc hing a joint.
- Joints stiff and hot, shifting rheumatism, pains worse at night.
- Rheumatic pain in joints of fingers, toes, wrists 
and ankles.
- Painful gout in big toe, cannot bear to have it touched or moved.
- Pain worse in evening and 
warm weather.
- Tearing in limbs during warm weather, stinging during cold.
- Sharp pain down left arm.
- Pins and 
needles in hands and wrists, fingertips numb.
- Tingling in finger-nails.
- Finger joints distorted, fingers flexed 
but in constant motion.
- Knees knock together, can hardly walk.
- Buttocks hot.
- Right plantar reflex abolished.
- Edematous swelling and coldness of legs and feet.
- Bloating of hands andfeet with dysentery.
- Rheumatism in 
spring.

### Neck & Back
- Backache, better rest and pressure.
- Lumbago.
- Aching in lumbar and lumbo sacral region.
- Ache better 
pressure and rest.
- Tension in neck muscles felt even on swallowing.
- Violent pain in region of  
kidneys, better lying on back only.
- Dull pain across loins.
- Spot on sacrum feels sore and bruised as if ulcerated, 
very sensitive to touch.
- Stinging and tension between scapulae.
- Torticollis.
- Breasts - Breast full, skin hot, pulse strong.
- Tearing, lancinating pain, deep in right breast, extending to back.
- Nipples dark, brownish-red, protruding.
- Nipples, unbearable pain on slightest touch by child.
- Causations - Bad effects of grief, nightwatching, over study.
- Misbehavior of others.
- Getting wet.
- Suppressed 
sweat.
- Complaints from getting overheated.

### Skin
- Skin dry, sweat suppressed or profuse.
- Blotchy papular rash on face.
- Pink spots on back, chest and 
abdomen.
- Urticaria.
- Stitches in skin.
- Tingling here and there, as after being frozen.
- Skin dry and pale, swollen, 
parts cold and glistening.
- Dryness of skin.
- Itching as in nettle -rash, unchanged by scratching.
- Erysipelas, 
smooth.
- Purple efflorescence on face, neck, and upper anterior part of thorax, inside of thighs, scrotum and 
groins in patches.

### Sleep
- Falls asleep while reading.
- Lies prostrate on back.
- Sleeplessness from restlessness of limbs.
- At 
night, disturbed sleep or driven away by pains.
- Irresistible sleepiness, drowsiness, when not in too much pain.
- Drowsiness during day.
- Starting, jerking in sleep.
- Frightful dreams, awakening from sleep.