Herbal medicines are, more than ever, receiving attention, both from the public and healthcare professionals alike, with many countries now undertaking registration schemes for traditional medicines.
However, healthcare professionals still freely admit their lack of knowledge in this area, and surveys suggest that patients often rely on friends and family for advice about herbal medicines. Never has there been a more appropriate time to advise healthcare professionals so that they can provide balanced, helpful advice to patients wishing to take herbal medicines with their ‘conventional’ treatments. Textbook aim, as ever, has therefore been to critically evaluate the published literature and present it in a familiar, easy-to handle format, so that the busy healthcare professional can quickly access the information and apply it to their clinical situation.This publication attempts to answer the same questions that address in Stockley’s Drug Interactions, namely:
- Are the drugs and substances in question known to interact or is the interaction only theoretical and speculative?
- If they do interact, how serious is it?
- Has it been described many times or only once?
- Are all patients affected or only a few?
- Is it best to avoid these two substances altogether or can the interaction be accommodated in some way?
- And what alternative and safer drugs can be used instead?
Stockley’s Herbal Medicines Interactions follows the same easy-to-read format as our other publications, with the text organised into a series of individual monographs, all with a common format. In addition, authors have included sections on: nomenclature, to help users identify herbal medicines that they or their patients may be familiar with under a different name; uses, so that those less familiar with herbal medicines can put their use into context; and constituents, to allow us to address interactions that occur as a result of a substance common to several plants. A pharmacopoeia section is also included for those herbal medicines, dietary supplements and nutraceuticals that have entries in the latest editions (at time of press) of the British Pharmacopoeia, the European Pharmacopoeia and the United States Pharmacopoeia. An indication of the constituents that the herbal medicine may be standardised for is also provided where necessary, but notes that this does not necessarily mean that all marketed products are standardised in this way. In addition, authors have added the simple, intuitive ratings system that users of Stockley’s Interaction Alerts and Stockley’s Drug Interactions Pocket Companion will already be familiar with.
Related posts:
Join hundreds of students and get all book resources for FREE! Subscribe to Pharmacy E-books via RSS or via E-mail
