The term potency means increase/enhancement and means that the effect of a homeopathic remedy increases by incremental delusion and succussion. “We potentise to make the substance so subtle that it effects the equally subtle vital force” (J.T. Kent). The dilution steps are one to ten, one to hundred, one to fifty thousand (D-, C- and LM- potencies).
How much and how often
Towards towards the end of his life Hahnemann discovered that in the case of chronic diseases it isn’t sufficient to give the remedy once and in long intervals (Hahnemann, Organon, 6. Edition, §246 – 248, 282 footnote). The same applies for acute diseases in which, under Serbian circumstances, one has to repeat the diluted remedy every hour. In both cases one reduces the frequency of giving the remedy when the patient ameliorates. The potency and frequency of the correctly chosen similimum is guided by the totality of the characteristic symptoms which takes the whole patient into account. Every person is individual and thus needs in individualised prescription.