Natrum Bromatum – Sodium Bromide

The attenuations are prepared from Sodium bromide, NaBr, MW: 102.9.

Whereas the bromides occupied a favoured position among the sedatives and as cough remedies many decades ago, reducing the excitability of the brain cells, in ho- moeopathic prescribing the bromides, especially Natrum Bromatum, are used ac- cording to the Reversal effect or Hahnemann’s Law of Similars.

The author was made frighteningly aware of what damage can be wrought even by such apparently harmless, mild drugs as bromides when, in the thirties and in the early years of his medical practice, he was the family doctor of a Berlin civil ser- vant’s family, and was introduced to a boy of about 20 who in early childhood had suffered from whooping cough and had been treated with high doses of bromides.

It was a situation which left a deep impression. In the little nursery bedroom, in a child’s bed, a handsome youth’s head looked up at the author, strangely agitated, from large, dark eyes. The author spoke to him, but received no reply. When the au- thor pulled back the bed-covers to examine him, he saw a large, handsome young man’s head attached to child’s body. Externally the head had developed normally; however, the general physical development was retarded, corresponding roughly to that of a 10-year-old. The mental development was completely retarded. The lad could not talk, he could only communicate with his parents by sign language: a ghastly fate for both the patient and his family.

We use Natrum Bromatum in potency for signs of bromism, in mental sluggish- ness, lack of will-power, in vertigo, when the ground seems to sway beneath the feet, and also – as in the case of the 20-year-old retarded patient – when pallor of the face is a striking symptom. However, Natrum Bromatum can also act in salivation, salty taste (like bromium), in anaesthesia in the throat, and also in hysterical conditions with the typical anaesthesia, as well as in cases of rapid, small pulse and in morbid

lethargy. On the other hand, it can also, in its homoeopathic form, compensate for the effects of other sleep-inducing agents, including herbal preparations such as Va- leriana, hops etc. Menorrhagia during the menopause is also an indication. Natrum Bromatum is used almost exclusively in combination-remedies.