Evaluation of Herbal Medicine Administration by Physicians in the Prescriptions of Yazd State Pharmacy

Abstract

Introduction: Herbal medicines are one of the most widely used complementary therapies in the world. Therefore, it is necessary to perform exact studies on the status of herbal medicines in communities. The aim of this study was surveying the prescription amount of herbal medicines prescribed by physicians and the effect of variables such as gender, degree of education, age, type of specialization of physicians, different seasons, source of drug production, price and the rate of insurance coverage on it.

Methods: The current study was a descriptive-analytical and cross-sectional one. This research was conducted in the period of April 1 to March 20, 2016 in a public pharmacy in Yazd. 1824 prescriptions were obtained using Cochran's statistical formula and the amount of prescription containing herbal medicines was evaluated using the prepared lists. The collected data in three general categories, including physicians' demographic characteristics, prescriptions and their containing drugs specification were analyzed using SPSS (version 16) software and using the Chi-square statistical test.

Results: Among the 1824 prescription examined, only 120 prescriptions contained herbal medicines with the average number of 1.05 ± 0.22 herbal medicine items in each prescription. 114 prescriptions (95%) and 6 prescriptions (5%) included one and two herbal items, respectively. There was a significant relationship between the amount of herbal medicine and the degree (P=0.041), type of specialization (P=0.04) and gender of the doctors (P=0.009), however, there was no significant relationship between the amount of prescription containing herbal medicines, the seasons of prescription (P=0.866) and the age of the physicians (P=0.089).

Conclusion: Considering the results of this study, the amount of herbal medicines prescribed by physician in Yazd city is low.