© 2003 BMJ Publishing Group & Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
COMMENTARY
Herbal medicines
Safety of herbal medicines in children
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Prof. I Choonara
Academic Division in Child Health, University of Nottingham, Derbyshire Children’s Hospital, Uttoxeter Road, Derby DE22 3NE, UK;Imti.choonara@nottingham.ac.uk
A commentary on the paper by Ramsay et al
Keywords: drug toxicity; herbal medicines
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Herbal medicines are used extensively by children in the West. They are an important part of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM). A study of over 500 children in the southwest of England reported that almost one in four children had received CAM therapy.1 Two studies in North America reported that over 10% of children had used at least one form of CAM therapy.2,3
It is important that health professionals adopt a non-judgemental approach with regard to parents who use CAM for their children. Many herbal medicines may be effective as we know that many plant derived chemicals are the basis of conventional drug therapies. Parents will often use a herbal medicine for their children on the basis that it is more "natural" and safer. One third of parents will use CAM because they feel that they are safer than conventional medicines!3
There have been numerous studies in relation
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This article has been cited by other articles:
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Ferner, R. E, Beard, K.
(2005). Regulating herbal medicines in the UK. BMJ
331: 62-63
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