• Brain and nervous system
• Head (especially right side)
• Eyes
• Throat and tonsils
• Mucous membranes
• Circulation and blood vessels
• Skin
• Glands

Lying in a dark, quiet room; warmth; bending backward; standing or sitting upright; sleep.

Light, noise, touch, jarring; 3 PM; exposure to cold air or drafts (especially on the head); lying down; movement; uncovering the head.

Belladonna is a remedy of intense mental activity, often bordering on delirium. Hahnemann described states of fear, sudden anger, and hallucinations. Clarke noted the “violent and erratic shifts” in emotion: laughing, singing, screaming, or trembling with fright. Kent emphasised the rapidity and violence of mental symptoms: the patient is acutely sensitive to light and noise, prone to visions, talks of ghosts or wild animals, and often strikes out in fear. Hallucinations may include distorted perceptions of people, animals, or light. Restlessness alternates with stupor. Children may strike, bite, or throw themselves around in feverish delirium, often with glassy eyes and hot, flushed faces. There is fear of dogs, black things, or sudden fright from imagined danger. Despite the intensity, these states can vanish as quickly as they appear.

One of the most prominent Belladonna spheres. Headaches are intense, throbbing, and often right-sided. The pain feels like “a hammer striking the skull,” as Clarke described. The face is red, eyes are injected, and pupils dilated. Scalp is hot, dry, and sensitive to the lightest touch. Pain worsens from stooping, jarring, or heat. Hering reported that headaches often come on suddenly and are worse around 3 PM. Pain may radiate to the neck or eyes, and is aggravated by the sun or motion.

Red, inflamed, dry, and glaring. Pupils are dilated and react sluggishly to light. There is photophobia and pain from the least glare. Clarke described stabbing or pressing eye pains, often with heat and dryness. Eyes may protrude or seem glassy. Lachrymation may be scant or acrid. There is blurred vision and sometimes double vision. Sudden onset of conjunctivitis or iritis, especially with throbbing pain, indicates Belladonna.

Sharp, stabbing or throbbing pain in the ears, often right-sided, with redness and swelling around the ear canal. Hearing may become hypersensitive or muffled. Kent noted Belladonna in acute otitis media, especially when pain radiates to the throat or jaw. Noises seem louder, more irritating.

Dryness of the nose with burning heat. Sudden onset of violent sneezing and nasal congestion. Clarke described nosebleeds during fevers or headaches. Smell may be altered, or the patient complains of odours that aren’t present.

Face is flushed, hot, red, and sometimes swollen. Children with Belladonna fever often have one cheek red and the other pale. Clarke noted that the face may twitch or contort in convulsions. Lips are dry, cracked, and bleeding. The expression can be wild, frightened, or staring. Sweat appears mostly on the face and forehead.

Dry mouth and throat with a burning sensation. Clarke noted a bright red tongue, often with a strawberry appearance. Speech may be thick, rapid, or incoherent during fever. Mouth may have a foul odour or excessive salivation in cases of paralysis or seizure.

Grinding of teeth during fever or sleep, particularly in children. Clarke listed Belladonna for toothache with red, swollen gums, and pains that radiate to the ear or jaw, worse from chewing or cold air.

Sensation of constriction or a lump when swallowing. Throat is dry, red, inflamed, and shiny. Clarke noted intense right-sided tonsillitis, often with difficulty swallowing, especially liquids. Pain may extend to the ear. Swallowing may provoke coughing or spasms. Glands in the neck are often swollen and tender.

Loss of appetite, nausea, and vomiting of bile or undigested food. Clarke noted cramping or griping pain after cold drinks or during fever. Gastric symptoms often occur in combination with headache or nervous symptoms. The stomach feels hot and full.

Distended, sensitive, and painful to the touch. Cutting or shooting pains move from side to side. Kent described spasms in the abdomen with heat and tenderness, worse from pressure and touch. Gurgling or bubbling sensation may be felt.

Frequent, painful urination with burning. Clarke reported urinary retention, particularly in children and during fever. Urine is scanty, dark, and may have a reddish sediment. Bladder feels full but cannot be emptied.

Constipation with dry, hard, crumbling stool. Clarke listed Belladonna for sudden onset of diarrhoea during fever, especially with cramping and offensive stools. Tenesmus or rectal pain may occur with stool.

Painful erections or sexual excitement during fever. Clarke noted increased libido in acute mania. Testicular pain or swelling can occur in epididymitis.

Sudden and intense menstrual bleeding with hot, red face and throbbing headache. Clarke noted Belladonna in right-sided ovarian pain, especially in dysmenorrhoea. Menstrual flow may be profuse and clotted. Breasts may feel swollen and tender.

Shortness of breath from spasms in the throat or chest. Hering described constricted breathing with anxiety and restlessness. Useful in laryngospasm, croup, or epiglottitis with dry cough and heat.

Palpitations with flushed face and throbbing carotids. Clarke mentioned pulse as full, bounding, and fast during fever. Kent noted Belladonna in early stages of pericarditis or hypertension with hot, flushed skin and visible pulsations.

Tightness, congestion, and throbbing in the chest. Clarke described dry, spasmodic coughs worse at night, especially lying down. Breathing may be rapid, shallow, and painful. Shooting pain may extend from the chest to shoulders or back. Belladonna is also used in early pneumonia or pleurisy when fever and congestion predominate.

Stiffness in the neck and upper spine. Pain may shoot from the nape down the back. Clarke noted rigidity during fevers or meningitis. Spine is sensitive to touch. There may be twitching of the back muscles.

Sudden jerking, twitching, or convulsions, especially in children. Kent described limbs that feel hot, heavy, and numb. Pain may be shooting or throbbing, worse on movement or touch. Hands and feet may be cold while the head is hot.

Dry, hot, and scarlet-red skin, especially during fever. Clarke noted Belladonna in scarlet fever, urticaria, and acute rashes with sudden onset. No eruptions or delayed eruptions in exanthemata can be a keynote. Skin is sensitive, even to a draught of air.

Restless, broken sleep with startling and moaning. Clarke noted vivid dreams and tossing about. Fever often worsens at night, disturbing sleep. May fall asleep easily but wakes in fright.

Dreams of fires, monsters, or frightening animals. Clarke recorded wild, confused dreams, often with screaming or talking during sleep.

Sudden, violent onset with high temperature, dry burning heat, red face, and cold extremities. Sweating is delayed or absent. Pupils dilated, eyes glassy, and throat dry. Fever has a paroxysmal nature—it escalates quickly, often around 3 PM, with delirium and restlessness. Clarke described the classic Belladonna fever as “stormy, intense, and florid.”

Chilliness is internal sensation that may precede heat. Heat follows with red face, throbbing pulse, and dryness. Sweat is profuse when it breaks through, but often suppressed early on. Sweat tends to be oily or sour-smelling.

Aversion to water despite thirst. Clarke noted craving for lemonade, acidic drinks, or cold food, though they may aggravate. Appetite is low during fever, and food may be vomited undigested.

Sudden, violent onset is a keynote. Heat, redness, dryness, and throbbing define many symptoms. Oversensitivity to light, noise, and touch. Right-sided symptoms prevail. Clarke and Kent stressed its suitability in acute states with high reactivity, including convulsions, fevers, and inflammatory crises.

• Aconite: Fever with fear, but more anxiety than heat.
• Stramonium: More intense delusions and violence.
• Hyoscyamus: Twitching and erotic mania, but less flushed and hot.
• Sulphur: Redness and heat, but more chronic, less sudden.
• Ferrum phos.: Less violent and not as congestive.

• Complementary: Calcarea carb., Sulphur
• Antidotes: Camphor, Coffea
• Inimical: Acidum nitricum (in some traditions)
• Follows well: Aconite, Chamomilla
• Precedes well: Sulphur, Hepar sulph.

Ideal for sudden onset fevers, right-sided tonsillitis, throbbing headaches, febrile seizures in children, and scarlet fever. Dose: 30C for acute; 200C for intense febrile states; LM potencies for longer-term neurological or glandular complaints with sensitivity and flare.

Mind

• MIND – Delirium, with visions
• MIND – Fear of black things, dogs
• MIND – Rage, striking, biting

Head

• HEAD – Pain, throbbing
• HEAD – Congestion, worse 3 PM
• HEAD – Hair sensitive to touch

Throat

• THROAT – Tonsillitis, right side
• THROAT – Swallowing, painful, liquids worse

Skin

• SKIN – Hot, dry, scarlet
• SKIN – Rash, sudden onset

Generalities

• GENERAL – Sudden onset
• GENERAL – Touch, aggravates
• GENERAL – Draft of air, aggravates

Samuel Hahnemann, Materia Medica Pura
James Tyler Kent, Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica
John Henry Clarke, A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica
William Boericke, Pocket Manual of Materia Medica
Constantine Hering, Guiding Symptoms of Our Materia Medica