Herbal Approach To Treating Addiction 'Effectiveness Needs Formal Assessment'

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