Herbal Supplement Use Could Alter Effects of Prescription Drugs
Some herbal products may influence the properties and effects of certain prescription medications and could potentially lead to adverse drug reactions, according to a new study.
For their study, the researchers assessed 49 case reports and 2 observational studies with 15 cases of adverse drug reactions. Data were obtained from the PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Medline and Scopus databases.
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Horn’s Drug Interaction Probability Scale (DIPS) and the Roussel Uclaf Causality Assessment Method (RUCAM) were implemented to extract data and examine the causal relationship of adverse drug reactions as consequences of herb-drug interactions (HDIs). Stockley’s Herbal Medicine Interaction Companion to determine each mechanism of interaction.
Most of the patients had received diagnoses of cardiovascular diseases (30.60%), cancer (22.45%) and renal transplants (16.32%) and had been receiving mostly warfarin, alkylating agents and cyclosporine, respectively.
“HDI occurred in patients resulting in clinical [adverse drug reactions] with different severity. Patients may poorly respond to therapeutic agents or develop toxicity due to severe HDI which in either scenario may increase the cost of treatment and /or lead to or prolong patient hospitalization,” the researchers concluded.
“It is warranted to increase patient awareness of the potential interaction between herbs and prescribed medicines and their consequences to curb HDI as a potential health problem,” they wrote.
—Christina Vogt
Reference:
Awortwe C, Makiwane M, Reuter H, Muller C, Louw J, Rosenkranz B. Critical evaluation of causality assessment of herb-drug interactions in patients [Published online January 24, 2018]. Br J Clin Pharmacol. doi:10.1111/bcp.13490.