What are polychrests?

 

What are polychrests?

Answer

    The term "polychrest "denotes remedies of "many uses." The term is used to loosely describe "large," well-known/well-characterized homeopathic remedies with broad-based pathogeneses that bear similarity to common disturbances of health, and are very frequently employed in practice in a wide variety of settings. These are our "broad-spectrum" remedies.
It is easy to conclude that Sulphur is a polychrest, and that Ceanothus is not, but in between somewhere, the line between "polychrest" and "non-polychrest" is blurry, and drawn to an arbitrary standard. I suppose most homeopaths would describe about 15--25 remedies as polychrests, but I am not aware of any definitive criteria that would include or exclude remedies or inspire argument regarding this designation for remedies close to that cut-off line.
The 20 most commonly-mentioned remedies in Kent's Repertory (in descending order, based on the number of rubrics in which they appear) are:

Sulphur

Phosphorus

Lycopodium

Sepia

Calcarea carbonica

Pulsatilla

Natrum muriaticum

Arsenicum album

Nux vomica

Mercurius

Rhus toxicodendron

Silica

Belladonna

Lachesis

Thuja

Causticum

Bryonia

Kali carbonicum

Zincum

Nitricum acidum
        And this might be a list to begin with.
Frequency of mention in the repertory is not really an objective litmus-test of the "polychrestishness" of a remedy though; I suspect some homeopaths might hem and haw about whether to describe Zincum as a polychrest, and many might wish to include some remedies from further down the list, such as Natrum sulphuricum, which is way down at #58, between Spigelia and Dulcamara. This list does, however, identify those remedies with more broadly-based pathogeneses, that are well-characterized in our literature.
        Clearly, we have many "small" remedies that are "small" only in that they have received little attention in proving and/or in the clinic; some of these may well be potential polychrests, pending their more full appreciation in the future.
        Don't equate "polychrest" with "constitutional remedy"—a term that I struggle with and don't use—it has acquired too much unfortunate baggage (though that is a subject for another article). I have seen deep and lasting cures of chronic cases with remedies such as Mezereum, Abies nigra, Trillium, Viola tricolor, Arundo mauritanica, etc., which most certainly could not be termed "polychrests" in anyone's interpretation of the term.

-- by Will Taylor