What is Lichen Planus?

  What causes Lichen Planus?

  What are the symptoms of Lichen Planus?

  Homoeopathic treatment To Lichen Planus

What is Lichen Planus?

Lichen Planus, an obstinate skin disorder has baffled not only the patients but also the practitioners equally. The cases of Lichen Planus have been observed all over the world, irrespective of the race, skin color and culture. The modern medicine today finds little help for this chronic disease. Fortunately, homeopathy, the fast growing alternative medicine has a definite, promising treatment for Lichen Planus.

It is fairly common irritating disorder of skin and mucous membrane characterized by purplish or violaceous, polyhedral, flat topped, itchy papules, occurring mostly on the flexor surfaces and in the mouth. The name lichen is derived from the word, purplish lichens that grows on trees, in the hills.

It is a recurring, chronic, non-infectious, non-contagious disease of the skin, of which the exact cause is not yet fully understood. It has a tendency to relapse after some months or years.

Females are more frequently affected as compared to the male counterpart, however, uncommon to find it in children. Over 1.9% of the total population is affected by Lichen Planus.

What causes Lichen Planus?

The predisposing causes are due to lower immunity. They are as follows :

1. Stress
2. Various allopathic drugs
3. Environmental factors
4. Hereditary factors
5. Allergic factors
   1. Contact with certain chemicals (paraphenylenediamine), drugs (Arsenic compounds, certain metals such as Gold, Bismuth, Quinacrine), exposure to light by photography development) etc.
   2. Certain modern medicines such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory pain killers (NSAID), antihypertensive medicines, amalgamated dental filling, etc are known to induce Lichen Planus, which has a tendency to persist despite the discontinuation of the said medicines.

Stress
In our in-depth studies, we have observed that certain intense and prolonged emotional stress such as anxiety, shock, traumatic childhood, sadness; disappointment, failure, humiliation, etc. often initiate the process of Lichen Planus.

Genetic
Hereditary tendency

Allergic component
The studies have indicated presence of certain cells, called as HLA A-3 cell markers, suggesting immunological and allergic links.

What are the symptoms of Lichen Planus?

The typical appearance of the Lichen Planus eruption :
Round or irregular shape, raised slightly above the skin level, brown or pinkies or black in color.

Description goes :
Flat-topped shiny polygonal eruptions. Small in size, thickened eruptions, rough and/or oily to touch, dirty look at times. You may find spots either in groups, a few or numerous in number and very often bilateral symmetrical (on both the side of the body, say legs). They have a tendency to start slowly, gradually and spread in the same fashion. Intense itching on the parts affected is the most annoying symptom of this condition. Itching may be so severe that it often leads to bruise or bleeding.

At times, one also observes the Lichen Planus eruptions appearing along the line of a scratch mark, called as Koebner's phenomenon.It has an affinity for the genitals are involved. In males, the glans (penis); while in females the vulva may be affected.

The nails when affected tend to become deformed. In short, Lichen Planus affecting the skin, mouth (Oral Lichen Planus) and vaginal LP are some of the most common variants.When the oral mucosa or the genitals are affected, this condition is often neglected, reported late or incorrectly diagnosed.

Homoeopathic treatment To Lichen Planus

The science of homeopathy looks at any skin disorder as an external expression of the internal disharmony. In other words, it is understood that due to certain internal system disorder, the Lichen Planus is manifested as an outcome. With this appreciation, it is emphasized that the treatment of Lichen Planus has to be essentially in order to normalize the internal disorder instead of just suppressing the skin eruptions with any local application of creams. Any use of local suppressant is strictly prohibited in homeopathy.

The homeopathy treatment is determined after evaluation of the patients case in a great detail. The case-study is the most vital part of the treatment, whereby various aspects of the patient's life-style, personality, food-habits, emotional make-up, personal and the family history are evaluated appropriately to decide on the correct medication to treat Lichen Planus.

As the entire constitution (physical and mental) of the patients is evaluated in a systematic manner, the homeopathic treatment is called as the constitutional treatment'.

The very significance of the constitutional treatment in homeopathy is to 'treat the patient as a whole' or 'patient as a person' which is directed to heal the body-mind system from within. The constitutional treatment helps the body's own healing mechanism, enhances body's self-recovery capacity hence leading to a long term cure.

The duration of treatment:
Lichen Planus is a deep-seated and obstinate skin condition which is often resistant to treatment of any form. The total length of treatment varies from case to case, depending on various factors such as (a) the duration of eruptions (b) the extent of spread of the eruptions (c) the general health of the patient.

The treatment is usually long term. One may expect a definite change in about three to five months, depending on the extent. The total length of medication may be anything between six months to two years or so.