Goethe J W, Price A L
Burlingame Center for Psychiatric Research and Education, The Institute of Living, Hartford, USA.
Conn Med. 2000 Jun;64(6):347-51.
The use of herbal medicines remains controversial despite their wide use by consumers. By U.S. standards few of these products have been sufficiently evaluated in scientific studies to determine with certainty their efficacy and safety. The authors review the herbal medicines with reputed psychiatric indications and discuss the potential adverse events with which physicians should be familiar. Whatever their potential benefits, some of these herbal products have potentially serious side effects, and many can interact with prescription medications. Patients frequently do not tell their physicians about their use of alternative medicines, and practitioners must ask specifically about products patients may be taking for health promotion and disease prevention as well as for the treatment of the presenting complaint.
尽管草药在消费者中广泛使用，但草药的使用仍存在争议。按照美国的标准，这些产品中很少有在科学研究中得到充分评估，以确定其疗效和安全性。作者回顾了有公认精神科适应症的草药，并讨论了医生应熟悉的潜在不良事件。无论这些草药有何潜在益处，其中一些草药产品都有潜在的严重副作用，而且许多草药会与处方药相互作用。患者常常不向医生透露他们使用替代药物的情况，医生必须特别询问患者可能正在服用的用于促进健康、预防疾病以及治疗当前病症的产品。
