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Revisão Produção Nacional Revisado por pares

BIBTEX RIS

Use of herbal medicines by elderly patients: A systematic review

2014; Elsevier BV; Volume: 59; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.archger.2014.06.002

1872-6976

José Edson de Souza Silva, Carlos Adriano Santos Souza, Tamara Bispo da Silva, Isla Alcântara Gomes, Giselle de Carvalho Brito, Adriano Antunes de Souza Araújo, Divaldo Pereira de Lyra, Wellington Barros da Silva, Francilene Amaral da Silva,

Pharmacology and Obesity Treatment

We aimed to survey the published literature for articles that describe the use of herbal supplements by elderly patients and to summarize important aspects of selected studies, including most commonly used supplements, study type, study location, and potential hazards of herbal supplement use. Literature searches were conducted on three scientific/medical databases: Medline, Web of Science, and Scopus. Search results were examined for articles involving the use of herbal products in the elderly population that met selection criteria. Initial searches yielded 1297 articles. Of these original results, only 16 met specific selection criteria. Twelve (75%) of studies identified were performed in North America. Nine studies (56.25%) were conducted in the United States. Seven of the studies were cross-sectional (43.8%). The most commonly reported were gingko biloba, garlic, ginseng, aloe vera, chamomile, spearmint, and ginger. Of these, gingko and garlic are the most commonly used among community-dwelling elderly. Both of these supplements have the potential to interact with anticoagulants and produce bruising or bleeding problems. The use of herbal supplements is common among the elderly, a population that takes a disproportionate share of prescription medications compared to that taken by younger populations. Among the problems uncovered by these studies was a lack of dialog between medical professionals and patients about the use of herbal supplements. Prescribers need to consider the use of herbal supplements and discuss the matter with their elderly patients when making decisions about pharmacological treatments.