Outcome studies are useful to point out to the effectiveness of individualized homeopathic treatment in dermatological complaints. Outcomes suggest that actions focusing on pathological categories do not lead to homeopathic suppression.

In the present study, we investigated the experimental basis for the indications of homeopathic drug Zincum metallicum. The current body of knowledge about Zinc met has a core composed of pathogenetic and clinical data collected in the 19th century surrounded by layers of clinical observations reported over time. In the description, we prioritized poorly known sources, especially the ones that were never translated from the original German. We also performed quantitative and statistical analysis of repertory data. Through a literature survey and a call to practicing homeopathic doctors from many countries, we were able to put together a relevant case-series that represents homeopathic indications of Zinc.

Blisters are skin lesions characterized by accumulation of fluid between the layers of the skin. Their severity varies from the common blisters caused by friction to severe autoimmune and congenital bullous disorders, some of them currently without treatment in conventional medicine or requiring drugs with potentially severe side-effects. This article reports cases of blistering diseases successfully treated with homeopathic medicines, which represent an alternative for the treatment of such disorders.

This paper describes the successful outcome of homeopathic treatment in a case of resistant livedoid vasculopathy (LV). LV is a rare disease characterized by chronic recurrent and painful ulceration of the lower limbs, frequently associated to atrophie blanche (AB), probably due to procoagulant conditions. Most literature reports single or very few cases; response to treatment is difficult, even resistant. This patient suffered LV for 7 years before seeking homeopathic treatment; ulcers recurred frequently, at intervals less than 3 months, in spite of continual use of pentoxyfilline. Configuration of signs and symptoms strongly pointed out to the prescription of homeopathic remedy Sepia succus that promptly elicited significant improvement of LV and the patient's overall state (non suppressive treatment). Considerations are made on the value of single case reports and the reliability of prescriptions grounded on consistent signs and coherence among the manifold features of individual disease.

Psoriasis is a common non-infectious disease, considered to be a chronic autoimmune condition, T-cell mediated, characterized by faster replacement of epidermis cells on the basal membrane level, consequently causing inflammation and scaling, affecting 2-3% of population. In palmoplantar psoriasis (PPP) fissures and bleeding aggravate patient's discomfort. Besides conventional dermatologic treatment, many patients choose homeopathic treatment for this condition due to their efficacy and lack of side-effects. In reports on homeopathic treatment of psoriasis the most used medicaments were so called polycrests, or big remedies (like Sulphur, Lycopodium, Natrum muriaticum, etc). In our article we report a case of PPP treated till recovery with a rare homeopathic remedy for this condition, Secale Cornutum, which was prescribed according to individualization of patient signs and symptoms.

Epidermolysis bullosa (EB) is a group of rare genetic disorders characterized by recurrent blistering as a result of even minor traction of epithelial lined tissues, most remarkably the skin. Associated morbidity is serious for all patients affected due to the presence of large areas of denudated skin thus susceptible to infection. There is currently no available treatment in conventional medicine. This article reports the case of 3 children successfully treated with individualized homeopathic medicines.

This paper discusses the medical act from a semiotic perspective. In this sense, the exchanges between a patient and a doctor may be approached as a process of transmission and reception of messages, through the intermediation of signs, signified by both agents, and which will conditionate the process of decision-making, the final step in the medical act. This is the conceptual framework for an anlysis of the different codes employed in the interpretation of the messages exchanged between patient and doctor, and some features of their application into homeopathic practice.

Semiotic processes ( or semiosis) refer to those process which are carriers of meaning and are performed through signs. A sign is something that stands for something else, and is the main mediating factor between an object and an interpreter, able to connect them and give rise to significations. The semiotic perspective, according to Charles Sanders Peirce, is basically triadic: all aspects of reality are triadic, comprising the categories of Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness in a continue and virtually infinite process of semiosis, i.e of various forms of giving rise to meanings that accordingly will generate reactions, actions and transformations. The aim of the present paper is to examine the possible levels of semiosis implied in the high dilution phenomenon, beginning with the process of so called “potency” of substrata (where every potency may be considered a sign for the next one) and arriving to the complex responses of the living bodies to infinitesimal signs.