Herbal medicine: women's views, knowledge and interaction with doctors: a qualitative study

Area of Science:

• Pharmacovigilance
• Integrative Medicine
• Patient Communication

Background:

• Growing concern regarding interactions between conventional and herbal medicines.
• Lack of patient disclosure of herbal product use to healthcare providers.
• Need to explore women's perspectives on herbal remedy safety and herb-drug interactions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate women's views on the safety of herbal remedies.
• To understand patient perspectives on herb-drug interactions.
• To explore communication patterns between patients using herbal medicines and their doctors.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative, cross-sectional study design.
• Purposive sampling in Cheshire, UK.
• Eighteen in-depth semi-structured interviews with female herbal medicine users (aged 18+).

Main Results:

• Majority of women did not disclose herbal medicine use to General Practitioners (GPs).
• Reasons for non-disclosure included lack of physician inquiry, perceived low importance, and fear of negative responses.
• Many women were unaware of potential herb-drug interactions; adverse effects were not reported due to perceived low importance.

Conclusions:

• Women exhibit limited knowledge regarding herb-drug interactions.
• Disclosure of herbal medicine use to doctors is infrequent.
• Improved physician communication and increased public/healthcare access to accurate herbal medicine information are essential.