Alternative pharmacotherapy. Patterns of patient use and family physician practice.
BACKGROUND
The use of alternative pharmacotherapies is rapidly increasing. Many persons who use purchased or prepared alternative medications are also cared for by family physicians. We describe patient usage of alternative pharmacotherapies and examine how family physicians handle this in medical practice.


METHODS
We recorded data from structured interviews of 178 patients in an academic family medicine practice in a midsized southern city. We then examined the medical records of each participant who reported using some form of alternative pharmacotherapy to determine whether there was discussion of this use with the physician.


RESULTS
Approximately one third of the patients reported using some form of alternative pharmacotherapy for 1 year or less, learning about alternative medications mostly from the media, and being generally satisfied with the results. Eighty-four percent of the patients reported not having been asked by their physician about their use of these drugs on the day of their office visit, and more than half reported never having been asked about their use of them. Medical record reviews indicated that for the most part physicians did not document having discussed or making recommendations about the use of alternative pharmacotherapies at any point in their relationship with the patient.


CONCLUSIONS
Since many of their patients are using alternative pharmacotherapies, family physicians are encouraged to learn more about what their patients use, to institute easy system-wide changes to facilitate discussion about this use with their patients, to document alternative drugs used, and to give recommendations regarding them.
Grant
M M
MM
Department of Family Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, USA.
Barney
R A
RA
Wagner
P J
PJ
Moseley
G C
GC
Dianati
R
R
D000328:Adult; D000529:Complementary Therapies / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D012651:Self Medication