Herbal Approach To Treating Addiction 'Effectiveness Needs Formal Assessment'

Main Category: Alcohol / Addiction / Illegal Drugs
Also Included In: Complementary Medicine / Alternative Medicine
Article Date: 07 Sep 2007 - 3:00 PDT

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The use of herbal medicine goes back thousands of years. Although there have been sporadic claims about its use in the treatment of addictions, specific evidence of its efficacy is hard to find. With that in mind, an international expert group was convened to examine issues such as efficacy, safety, usefulness, toxicity and side effects of the herbal substances in the treatment of addictions.

This project brought together, for the first time, a group of international experts to consider a number of areas of interest, including existing evidence, lessons learnt from herbal medicine in other health conditions, gaps in knowledge and opportunities for future development.

Twenty experts attended from ten countries: Brazil, Finland, Germany, Mexico, India, Hungary, China, Ghana, Vietnam and the UK.

The ICDP issued a report on Herbal Medicine in the treatment of addictions.

ICDP director Professor Hamid Ghodse said: "Although herbal medicines have long been used, there is little systematic evidence regarding their safety and efficacy because of the lack of quality control and an improper use by consumers, cases of misuse of herbal preparations have been reported. There is a need to ensure the safety and efficacy of herbal medicine in general and their use in the treatment of addictions in particular. The number of countries with regulations on herbal medicine has increased over the last few years. There might be a place for the use of herbal medicine in the treatment of addictions, but in the absence of proper scientific studies the claims for the effectiveness and above all the safety of such preparations is unjustified"

International Centre for Drug Policy