Sim S N, Levine M A H
Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.
Can J Clin Pharmacol. 2010 Winter;17(1):e57-63. Epub 2010 Feb 5.
Natural health products (NHP) are increasingly being used by patients concomitantly receiving prescription drugs, which can result in potentially serious drug-herb interactions. This is particularly true for St. John's wort.
This study was conducted to evaluate pharmacists and natural health product retailers' knowledge on this topic.
An interviewer approached 24 pharmacists and 6 natural health product retailers to obtain information regarding St. John's wort. If asked, the interviewer indicated that they were currently using cyclosporine to treat a problem of proteinuria. The response of the pharmacist or NHP retailer to a series of questions was recorded after the encounter.
90% of respondents indicated that St. John's wort was useful for treating depression. Two-thirds of the respondents required prompting by the interviewer before providing any comments pertaining to safety. 60% of the respondents inquired about concurrent medications and 40% made statements regarding potential drug-herb interactions.
Despite the potential for a serious drug-herb interaction involving St. John's wort and cyclosporine, less than half of the pharmacists and natural health product retailers that were encountered in the study addressed this topic with the prospective patient/client. Individuals selling natural health products need to communicate more information to their patients/clients regarding potential drug-herb interactions.
正在接受处方药治疗的患者越来越多地同时使用天然健康产品（NHP），这可能导致潜在的严重药物与草药相互作用。圣约翰草尤其如此。
本研究旨在评估药剂师和天然健康产品零售商对此主题的了解情况。
一名访谈者接触了24名药剂师和6名天然健康产品零售商，以获取有关圣约翰草的信息。如果被问到，访谈者表示他们目前正在使用环孢素治疗蛋白尿问题。在接触后，记录药剂师或NHP零售商对一系列问题的回答。
90%的受访者表示圣约翰草对治疗抑郁症有用。三分之二的受访者在提供任何有关安全性的评论之前需要访谈者的提示。60%的受访者询问了同时使用的药物，40%的受访者发表了有关潜在药物与草药相互作用的声明。
尽管圣约翰草和环孢素之间可能存在严重的药物与草药相互作用，但在该研究中遇到的药剂师和天然健康产品零售商中，不到一半的人与潜在患者/客户讨论了这个话题。销售天然健康产品的个人需要向其患者/客户传达更多有关潜在药物与草药相互作用的信息。
