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Health Care Professionals' Personal and Professional Views of Herbal Medicines in the United Kingdom

Bhamra, Sukvinder K., Slater, Adrian, Howard, Caroline, Heinrich, Michael, Johnson, Mark R.D. (2019) Health Care Professionals' Personal and Professional Views of Herbal Medicines in the United Kingdom. Phytotherapy Research, 33 (9). pp. 2360-2368. ISSN 0951-418X. (doi:10.1002/ptr.6418) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:76002)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided. (Contact us about this Publication)
Official URL:
https://doi.org/10.1002/ptr.6418

Abstract

Health care professionals (HCPs) have a pivotal role in optimizing patient care and should be familiar with complementary and alternative medicines. The aim of the study was to explore UK‐based HCP personal and professional opinions and experiences of herbal medicines (HMs). An online questionnaire was distributed via social media to recruit (n = 112) a range of HCPs from across the United Kingdom. HCPs from primary and secondary care, the private sector, and academia took part. A large proportion of participants (62%) said they did not personally use any HMs, and 38% did use HMs. HCPs who had personally used HMs had a positive impression of HMs and were more likely to recommend HMs to patients than those who had not used HMs themselves. Participants were given the opportunity to share their perceptions on the safety and efficacy of HMs and their experiences with patients reporting adverse drug reactions to HMs and herb–drug interactions. HCPs identified their lack of knowledge on HMs and insufficient training, which made them unable to advise patients on the safe use of HMs. More education on HMs would help improve HCP knowledge of HMs and help them make better-informed decisions when considering patient pharmaceutical care plans.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1002/ptr.6418
Uncontrolled keywords: complementary and alternative medicines, ethnopharmacology, health care professionals, herbal medicines, polypharmacy, traditional medicine
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Natural Sciences > Medway School of Pharmacy
Depositing User: Sukvinder Bhamra
Date Deposited: 28 Aug 2019 08:29 UTC
Last Modified: 02 Dec 2021 18:00 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/76002 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Bhamra, Sukvinder K..

Creator's ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0032-0552
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