Aconite
Use at the first sign of a cough. Cough starts quickly. Hoarse, dry, possibly barking cough. Tickly throat. Cough with high fever. Skin feels dry and hot. May shiver and feel cold. Feels restlessness and anxious, thinks may die. Wants cold drinks. May find things taste bitter, except water. Can be caused by cold, wind or shock.
Better: Fresh air.
Worse: touch, in the evening and around midnight.
Antimonium Tart
Rattling cough with lots of phlegm in the chest that they can’t cough up. White coating on tongue. Sweats and yawns a lot. Breathless, feels suffocated or like they are drowning. Exhausted, weak and drowsy. Can be clingy or irritable. Wants cold water, fruit, refreshing foods.
Better: coughing up the phlegm, sitting up, cold drinks.
Worse: warmth, lying down; company, at 4pm.
Arsenicum Album
Wheezing cough, burning, tight chest. Feels thirsty, chilly, tired and weak. Restlessness with anxiety, worried they won’t recover. Wants company, to sip cold water.
Better: heat, sitting up
Worse: midnight – 3am.
Bryonia
Starts gradually. Hard, dry, painful cough causing a sore chest. Stitching pains. Very thirsty. Irritable, wants to be alone.
Better: firm pressure.
Worse: moving, breathing in, after eating cabbage or beans, at 9pm.
Drosera
Dry, spasmodic, continuous cough, can hardly catch breath. May choke, vomit or retch from coughing. Tickling chest, feels as if there’s a feather in the throat. Dry, sore throat, may have yellow phlegm.
Better: holding chest, sitting up, pressure, open air.
Worse: lying down, talking, warmth, towards the end of the evening and after midnight.
Hepar Sulph
Noisy hoarse, dry cough or loose rattling with thick, smelly, yellow mucus. Feels chilly.
Irritable, hypersensitive to everything (cold, touch, noise etc). Cause can be a cold draft or after becoming chilly.
Better: heat, damp, lying in a warm bed.
Worse: early morning, after midnight.
Phosphorous
Violent dry cough with irritated throat, may have laryngitis. Coughs when talks or laughs. Chest feels sore and tight, lungs are congested. May have streaks of blood in phlegm. Feels scared and anxious, wants company and sympathy. Can start after having anaesthetic.
Better: touch, massage.
Worse: change of temperature, going outside or coming in, lying on left side, during twilight.
Pulsatilla
Changeable symptoms. Rattling cough with thick, yellow mucus. Not thirsty. Moody, weepy and clingy. Wants company. Causes can be feeling abandoned, getting feet wet, ear infection or eating rich buttery food.
Better: fresh air, bathing, crying, movement, pressure.
Worse: in evening, stuffy room, being alone, twilight, wet, windy weather.
Sources include Murphy, Clarke, Fernandez.