Treatment

Relief may be obtained by means of prolonged baths and energetic frictions, and alkaline and tarry preparations, such as the tinctura saponis viridis, to which a liberal amount of tar has been added. Peppermint oil acts as a temporary sedative. As the violence of the disease is most fully displayed at night, the applications should be made at bed-time, except in cases of such severity that the patient is obliged to abandon business or social life, and give himself up entirely to the treatment of his disease.