Authors: Edzard Ernst
Publish Date: 2005/12/10
Volume: 62, Issue: 1, Pages: 1-2
Abstract
In an article appearing in this issue Cuzzolin 1 report that of their female patients roughly every second one has used herbal medicines with about 10 having had noted side effects which in some cases were severe While their study was not a populationbased survey and the focus was on subjective experiences rather than on objectively verified adverse effects their findings nonetheless should give us pause for thoughtThe data presented by Cuzzolin 1 are restricted to female patients and originate from Italy a country with a strong tradition of herbal medicine The key question is whether these data are generalisable Virtually all surveys on this subject agree that women use more herbal supplements than men for example see Barnes et al 2 Although the usage of supplements in the general population is usually lower than in patient groups it is still substantial In the US for example the 1year prevalence is around 20 2 It would seem therefore that
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