Return the Spirit Elixir

Pattern-based

• Heart qi insufficiency with abstraction and forgetfulness
• Withdrawal-epilepsy with mania and disorder
• Heart vacuity after a great illness

Biomedical correlates

• Psychosis with cognitive impairment
• Epilepsy with psychiatric features
• Convalescent debility with anxiety

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治心氣不足, 恍惚健忘, 或癲癎狂亂, 驚悸怔忡, 神不守舍之證, 及大病後心虛. 能安神寧心, 固元氣長存. 大塊朱砂 二兩(入猪心內, 以燈心纏縛, 好酒蒸二炊久, 取出另研), 酸棗仁(炒)ㆍ白茯神ㆍ人參ㆍ大當歸 各二兩, 深紅琥珀ㆍ大遠志(薑汁製)ㆍ龍齒 各一兩, 金箔ㆍ銀箔 各二十片. 右爲末, 酒煮稀糊和丸梧子大, 每服一九丸至三九丸, 麥門冬煎湯下. 癲癎甚者, 乳香人參煎湯下. 多夢不睡, 酸棗仁二煎湯下. 《臞仙》 《活心》

Translation

Treats heart qi insufficiency with abstraction and forgetfulness, or withdrawal-epilepsy with mania and disorder, fright palpitation and fearful throbbing, and the sign of a spirit that does not keep to its house, and heart vacuity after a great illness. It can quiet the spirit and still the heart, and secure the original qi so that it endures. Cinnabar in a large lump, 2 nyang (put inside a pig's heart, bound about with rush pith, steamed in good wine for the time of two cookings, taken out and ground separately); spiny jujube seed (stir-fried), white poria spirit, ginseng and large angelica, 2 nyang each; deep red amber, large polygala (processed with ginger juice) and fossilised tooth, 1 nyang each; gold leaf and silver leaf, twenty leaves each. Powder them, make pills the size of a firmiana seed with thin paste boiled in wine, and take nine to twenty-seven at a dose with ophiopogon decoction. Where the withdrawal-epilepsy is severe, take it with a decoction of frankincense and ginseng. Where there are many dreams and no sleep, take it with a decoction of spiny jujube seed, two parts. — Guseon 臞仙 · Hwalsim 活心 (Donguibogam · Sin)