Risk of serotonin syndrome with complementary and alternative medicines: importance to child and adolescent psychiatry.

OBJECTIVES

Evaluate how child and adolescent psychiatrists rate themselves regarding their knowledge and clinical skills in assessing interactions between non-prescribed complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) and prescribed medications.

METHODOLOGY

A brief questionnaire about the practice of asking patients about CAM use was given to child and adolescent psychiatrists.

RESULTS

The questionnaire was completed by 20 child and adolescent psychiatrists. Only 35% of the sample stated that they always asked about CAM use although 55% stated that they aware of the importance of prescribed drug interactions with CAM. Of the sample, 90% stated that they could recognize serotonin syndrome, but only 65% answered correctly to the description of the syndrome. Given a list of possible CAM that could interact with prescribed drugs to produce serotonin syndrome, only 10% identified all the drugs correctly.

CONCLUSION

CAM training should be included in training programs and in continued education curriculums for practicing child psychiatrists.