Drug-Herb Interactions - a challenge and clinical concern in Primary Healthcare

Sujithra M^1*Ram Manohar¹Zeena S Pillai²

• ¹Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Amrita School of Ayurveda, Kollam, India
• ²Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Department of Chemistry Amritapuri, Amrithapuri, India

Primary healthcare (PHC) is the first level care that provides basic and everyday medical service to people in their own communities. Family doctors, local clinics, and community health centers fall under this category. When it comes to drug-herb interactions, PHC faces unique challenges. Herbal medicine usage is increasing globally, raising the challenge of drug-herb interactions due to simultaneous administration with modern pharmacological agents. Literature on drug-herb interactions is growing but inadequately explored in the context of primary healthcare. This mini review focuses on the concerns and challenges of drug-herb interactions in a primary healthcare setup, taking into consideration patterns, high risk scenarios, prediction and assessment, and management strategies. It highlights the obstacles faced by the primary healthcare practitioners, about time and resource limitation, loose ends, knowledge gaps and difficulties in communication. In addition, it emphasizes the need for organized approaches to screen the interactions, using risk assessment tools created for primary care, and to enhance the educational resources to ensure patient safety and medical outcomes in a community-based healthcare setting. A consolidated evidence matrix of drug-herb interaction from published research articles is included, which can serve as a one stop reference resource at the point of care.