Antipyrinum
Phenazone (antipyrine) · Human-made/chemical
The Antipyrinum patient presents with marked vascular disturbances including oedema, erythema, and circumscribed patches of skin hyperaemia from capillary dilation. Fear of insanity, hallucinations, and nervous anxiety accompany the physical symptoms. The remedy is useful in acute erythema multiforme and allergic reactions to this coal-tar drug.
Key symptoms
- Fear of becoming insane with hallucinations of sight and hearing
- Throbbing headache with sensation of constriction; headache under ears with earache
- Tinnitus with pains and buzzing in ears
- Conjunctiva red and oedematous with lachrymation
- Oedema and puffiness of face
- Swelling of lips with burning of mouth, gums, and ulceration of lips and tongue
- Vesicles and bullae in mouth with bloody saliva
- Acute erythema multiforme with circumscribed patches of hyperaemia
Phenazone-A Coal-tar Derivative (ANTIPYRINE)
Antipyrine is one of the drugs that induce leucocytosis, similar to ergotin, salicylates, and tuberculin. Acts especially on the vaso-motor centers, causing dilation of capillaries of skin and consequent circumscribed patches of hyperæmia and swelling. In large doses causes profuse perspiration, dizziness, cyanosis, and somnolence, albumen and blood in urine. Acute erythema multiforme.
Mind
Fear of becoming insane; nervous anxiety; hallucinations of sight and hearing.
Head
Throbbing headache; sensation of constriction. Flashes of heat. Headache under ears with earache.
Eyes
Puffiness of lids. Conjunctiva red and œdematous, with lachrymation. Red spots (Apis).
Ears
Pains and buzzing. Tinnitus.
Face
Œdema and puffiness. Red and swollen.
Mouth
Swelling of lips. Burning of mouth and gums. Ulceration of lips and tongue; vesicles and bullæ. Small lump in cheek. Tongue swollen. Bloody saliva. Toothache along lower jaw.
Throat
Pain on swallowing. Expectoration of fetid pus. Abscess, white false membrane. Sensation of burning.
Stomach
Nausea and vomiting; burning and pain.
Urine
Diminished. Penis black.
Female
Itching and burning in vagina. Menses suppressed. Watery leucorrhœa.
Respiratory
Fluent coryza. Nasal mucous membrane swollen. Dull pains in frontal sinus. Aphonia. Oppression and dyspnœa. Cheyne-Stokes respiration.
Heart
Faintness, with sensation of stoppage of heart. Throbbing throughout the body. Rapid, weak, irregular pulse.
Nerves
Epileptiform seizures. Contractures. Trembling and cramps. Crawling and numbness. General prostration.
Skin
Erythema, eczema, pemphigus. Intense pruritus. Urticaria, appearing and disappearing suddenly, with internal coldness. Angioneurotic-œdema. Dark blotches on skin of penis, sometimes with œdema.
Dose
Second decimal potency.
Phenazon (Phenyl-dimethyl-pyrazolon). C11 H12 N2O. A product of coal tar through toluin. Solution and trituration.
Clinical
Dysmenia. Enuresis. Epilepsy. Epistaxis. Erythema. German measles. Headache. Heart, paralysis of. Mind, deranged. Respiration, Cheyne-Stokes. Scarlatina. Throat, sore. Toothache. Urticaria.
Characteristics
Antipyrine is known from the poisonous effects it has produced in old-school practice. Many fatal cases have been recorded, and there can be little doubt that its injudicious use has determined a fatal issue in many cases that have remained unrecorded. Its action is very like that of Antifebrin in producing collapse, but it has more effect on the skin, causing scarlet rash and œdema. A young lady patient of mine who took Antipyrin on her own account, whenever she thought she might be going to have a headache, developed intense dysmenorrhœa (to which she was not subject), with depression. This was only removed after she had discontinued the drug. Later on she took Phenacetin, with …
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