Prevalence of concurrent use of antipsychotic drugs and herbal medicines among patients attending a tertiary health facility in Nigeria

Abstract

The use of herbal medicines with conventional medicines is on the rise. Therefore, drug-herb interactions have become an important issue in drug safety and efficacy in clinical practice. A cross-sectional prospective study using a structured questionnaire was carried out on patients using antipsychotic drugs attending the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Kaduna. Participants were recruited randomly and intermittently until a sample size of 217 was attained. Data on the use of herbal medicines, type of antipsychotic drug, compliance with dosage regimen, duration of antipsychotic therapy, side effects of antipsychotic drugs and some socio-demographic characteristics were collected via a face-face interview method. There were 83 males (38.2%) and 134 females (61.8%) and the mean age of the respondents was 39.1± 0.9 years. The prevalence of concomitant use of herbal medicines and antipsychotic drugs is 44.7%. The prevalence was 45.5% in females, 52.6% in those less than 25 years of age and 48.2% in patients that were on typical antipsychotic drugs. The use of herbal medicines concurrently with antipsychotic drugs was found to be high among the patients and usage was higher in females, those less than 25 years and in patients on typical antipsychotic drugs.

Keywords: Antipsychotics, herbal medicines, concurrent intake, prevalence, herb drug interaction