Table 1.
Aspects to be considered when documenting a case of a herb–drug interaction
Aspect | Specification |
---|---|
Characteristics of user | Age/gender/ethnicity |
(Co-)morbidity/anamnesis | |
Characteristics of herbal product/conventional drug | Composition/dosage form |
Phytochemical constituents/quality of herbal product | |
Use of herbal product/conventional drug | Reason for/duration of use |
Route of administration/dose/time and dose/day | |
Use of other products | Conventional/unconventional products |
Characteristics of adverse event | Clinical signs/symptoms |
Laboratory findings | |
Conventional drug levels | |
Evaluation of adverse event | Temporal time sequence |
Dechallenge/rechallenge | |
Formal causality assessment | |
Stability of patient before/after adverse event | |
Coverage of existing literature | |
Product-bound/user-bound/circumstances-bound risk modifiers (e.g. frailness/infrequent genotype) | |
Evaluation of confounding factors | Change in (co-)morbidity |
Change in intake food/alcohol/recreational drugs | |
Change in conventional/unconventional products | |
Change in patient adherence |