title: The prevalence of herbs use in conjunction with conventional medicines in Jamaica.
abstract: Due to the global rise in the popularity of herbal medicines, adversities resulting from concomitant use of both prescription drugs and herbs are becoming an increasingly important public health issue.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To estimate the prevalence of the use of herbal medicines among persons on prescription medicines in Jamaica. Findings are thought to aid in estimates of the risk of adversities from drug-herb interactions through laboratory investigations and to provide awareness among policy makers responsible for the design of appropriate pharmacovigilance systems in the country.
  
  
  METHODS
  A survey was conducted in eighteen pharmacies throughout Jamaica and patients or parents/carers of children who were on at least one prescription medicine were administered a structured questionnaire by trained interviewers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 399 persons invited to participate in the study 365 (91.5% response rate) agreed to do so and were included in the study. This study population consisted of 306 adults and 60 children and of that 243 adults (80.6%) and 45 children (75.6%) engaged in the concomitant use of herbs and drugs. Patients with a variety of disease conditions, in both rural and urban environs engaged in concomitant herb-drug use. Persons with higher salary (P<0.1) and those with health insurance (P<0.02) tended to have a lower prevalence of herb-drug concomitant use. Among persons indicating such practices the most commonly cited reason for concurrent use of prescription medicine and herbal preparations was the belief that there was no harm in taking both (269, 94.0%) followed by the belief that the prescription medicine alone was not adequate cure (211, 71%). Only 55 (18%) respondents who practised such co-medication indicated that their doctors knew of their use of herbal preparations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is a high prevalence of herb-drug concomitant use in Jamaica, and an awareness within the medical community and those monitoring adversities would serve well to mitigate risks from potential drug-herb interactions.
authors.affiliation: Natural Products Institute, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. r_delgoda@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Rupika
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Delgoda
authors.forename: Novie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Younger
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Barrett
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Braithwaite
authors.forename: Denise
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Davis
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004363:Drug Utilization; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D041743:Herb-Drug Interactions; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007563:Jamaica; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010594:Pharmacies; D008517:Phytotherapy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010946:Plants, Medicinal; D019338:Polypharmacy; D055553:Prescription Drugs / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015995:Prevalence; D012651:Self Medication / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D055553:Prescription Drugs