Pharmacists’ knowledge, attitudes and practices towards herbal remedies in West Bank, Palestine

Abstract

Background: There is an increasing trend towards consumption of complementary and alternative herbal products in many parts of the world. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the knowledge and attitudes among pharmacists in West Bank, Palestine towards the use of herbs. Methods: Self-administered questionnaire was designed as the study instrument and distributed among 350 qualified pharmacists working in government and private pharmacies in West Bank, Palestine. Results: The response rate was 82.9% (290/350). The mean age of the pharmacists was 32.9 (SD=6.5) years. The majority of the pharmacist 238 (82.1%) worked in the community pharmacies and their experience in practice ranged from 1 to 26 years. Product package instructions and product representative were the most consulted by the pharmacists (128; 44.2% and 73; 25.2% respectively). General health tonic preparations were the most widely dispensed drugs (142; 48.9%), followed by cough preparations (55; 19.0%) and slimming agents (64; 22.1%). The Majority of pharmacists (195; 67.2%) believed herbal remedies were effective; however, about fifty percent of the pharmacists had concern about their safety. The knowledge of respondents about the indications of herbal medicine was good, but their awareness of interactions, contraindications and adverse effects was inadequate. The majority of Pharmacists (255; 87.9%) believed that herbal product should undergo increased regulation and (215; 74.9%) believed that information available about herbal and natural product isn't adequate.

Beliefs, practices and knowledge of community pharmacists regarding complementary and alternative medicine: national cross-sectional study in Lebanon

“…These findings may lead to the advice of pharmacists being suboptimal and could, in some instances, jeopardise the health and well-being of the patients. The knowledge deficiencies found in this study were also reported by many studies in the region such as Saudi Arabia,6 23Abu Dhabi,24 Jordan,19 Kuwait,20 21 Oman,22 Qatar,39 Palestine42 43 and Iran44 as well as other countries such as Ethiopia,3 USA,18 Singapore,38 and in Trinidad and Tobago,45 and therefore appear to be a global concern. One possible explanation for the observed knowledge deficiencies could be the biased information propagated by some CAM product companies.…”

Community Pharmacists’ Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practice of Herbal Medicines in Asir Region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

“…The structured questionnaire was adapted from previous studies [ 2 , 8 , 13 ]. The questionnaire consisted of 4 domains: demographics/background information, knowledge, attitudes, and practice related to herbal products.…”

“…The second section assessed pharmacists' knowledge by asking true or false questions regarding the indications, side effects, and contraindications of nine of the most commonly used herbal medicines, such as Ginseng, St John's Wort, and Valerian. The nine herbal medicines were selected based on the findings of previous studies conducted in Saudi Arabia and other studies in the Middle East [ 2 , 8 , 14 , 15 ]. The questions were adapted from the studies by Khdour et al and Alkharfy since these two studies asked questions concerning the safety and efficacy of the nine herbal medicines that are common in the region [ 2 , 8 ].…”

“…A dramatic increase has been noted in the global consumption of natural products and herbal medicines in the past three decades [ 1 ]. The surge in the use of herbal medicines world-wide has caught the attention of researchers, healthcare practitioners, and regulatory agencies [ 2 ]. The belief that herbal medicines promote healthier living is cited as a prime reason for its popularity in developed countries.…”

The Prevalence, Attitude and Awareness of Herbal Medicine Products Use Among Pharmacy Practitioner in Jordan

“…19 Other research published in 2015 about the knowledge and attitude of medical students in Tamale, Ghana about using Herbal medicine and found that most students consume herbal medicine and get good outcomes. 20 The usage of herbal products influences their compliance with the prescribed conventional regimen. Despising of the herbal medicine by the pharmacist for patients being more dangerous if we know that the greatest number of patients with chronic diseases are using herbal products without any knowledge of their physician or pharmacist; some surveys reported that many patients don't inform their physicians about the usage of herbal medicines use and don't even physicians don't ask the patient about these products.…”