A 41 year old furniture businessman with chronic complaints of habitual constipation since 15 years due to suppressed emotions resulting from stressful events (death of spouse, Major business loss).

This is the case of Mr. K. D. N (Patient Ref. No. S-2225) a 41 years old male patient who reported to the clinic with complaints of habitual constipation since 15 years. The stools were hard and required much straining. There would be sensation of incomplete evacuation after stools. Frequently he would have ineffectual urge to pass stools but there would be no bowel movement. He would experience much heaviness and bloating of the abdomen and flatulence. Eating bread would worsen his complaints and it would also get worse from traveling. Apart from this he also complained of cramps in the legs that would be worse after evening and continue till late in the night.

Patient was into furniture business and there was lot of stress on him due to certain problems in the family. His wife suffered from leukemia and had suffered a lot during her last few days. She had expired few years before the patient reported to us. He had married again but would not get along well with the second wife due to the age difference between them (she was much younger to him). There was lot of conflict in his life due to this and he said that he had no peace in life at all. He was a very hardworking person and very industrious by nature. He also suffered from a major loss in his business whereby he had lost everything that he had built up so far. He had to start his business from the scratch again. Thus he had been through lots of mental stress before he reported to us and was under stress even when he visited the clinic. He would not share his problems with others but usually would want to solve it all by himself. He was religious by nature and a god-fearing person.

We can see in this case that there are a lot of suppressed emotions and mostly he was unable to express his thoughts. Constant anxiety, especially on the family front, is an important aspect of his case. The psychological stress remains unattended and hence it expresses itself at the somatic (physical) level in the form of altered motility of the gastro-intestinal tract. Thus his complaints were predominantly related to constipation along with other symptoms of IBS as well.

He was prescribed constitutional homeopathic treatment based on this history, considering the role of stress in the background. After starting the treatment, gradually his complaints started improving. His stools would not be hard as before and would not require much straining. There was significant improvement in the sensations of ineffectual urging and incomplete evacuation. The heaviness in his abdomen significantly improved. In between he did experience periods of worsening of the IBS when he would be under stress but then it would be taken care of with homoeopathic medicines. Overall he did very well with the treatment and continued to improve.