This is a great question. And many of my patients want to know the name of the remedy they are taking. I personally have no issue with this. I really don't care. BUT I have learned that many people aren't emotionally mature enough to know.

When people find out what remedy they are taking, they do 2 things, and I have seen it in my practice.

1.) They "google" the name of the remedy online and learn everything about it.  First of all, the internet gives only a brief over view of the remedy, and the meat of the information is in our materia medica. So patients only get partial information. Then some patients come back to us and challenge our decisions. Insisting that we did not give them the correct remedy, based on what they read. Some choose to take offense. The entire case gets side tracked from their own healing to a conflict about correct remedy selection.

2.) Some patients see if the remedy is working that they can dump their homeopath and start self prescribing. This is very dangerous, as there are so many potencies in our pharmacopia, that the correct potency selection is just as important as the selection of the remedy itself. Also is timing, and frequency of repetition. Patients can literally send themselves to the hospital if they choose the wrong potency and administer it improperly.

I agree with patients that they should know what the remedy is, but I do not disclose it because I know that there is likely hood of them doing the above actions.

What I have found is to tell patients a bit about the remedy, if it is a plant or mineral and what it normally treats or cures. Then they know something, and everyone feels happy.

I have had patients ask me about the remedy, so I tell them in all honesty, then they choose to feel so offended that it alters my relationship with them.  Others have come right out and said : why should I pay you a hundred dollars a visit when the remedy is working, you can tell me what it is, then I can pay ten dollars for the remedy over the counter, and save myself a dime.

All points of view are valid. The balance point is this. If you must know the remedy you are taking, then find a homeopath that is willing to disclose it to you. DO NOT get into an arguement about rightness or wrongness of this issue. That only creates conflict.

I had a naturopath as a patient that was feeling so much better she just had to know the name of the remedy, and when I told her she didn't see the connection and was perplexed.  Another case where I choose a remedy, that got a child to start talking after four years of him being a mute. The mother just had to know the remedy too, and got angry when I didn't want to tell her.

Disclosure of the remedy often creates more problems then satisfying the curiousity of the patient.

The Answer is: Yes patients should know, but most are not emotionally mature enough to do whats proper with the information.

Lindsay Tietz, Homeopathic Doctor
Owner  Intention to Heal
Proudly Serving the Danforth Area Direct