Usefulness of herbal and dietary supplement references.

Objective: To describe the usefulness of some of the most common tertiary references that healthcare professionals employ to answer requests about herbal and dietary supplements.

Methods: All requests for information on herbal and dietary supplements received by the drug information service between April and September 2000 were evaluated. Each question was independently reviewed by 4 clinicians using a 4-point scale; 14 references were searched for appropriate answers. The percent of responses for each of the possible scores for each reference overall and by category of question was reported to determine the most helpful references for answering the broadest range of questions.

Results: Fifty questions regarding herbal and dietary supplements were analyzed. The electronic databases (Natural Medicine Comprehensive Database, Micromedex) and the Internet site (The Natural Pharmacist) were determined to be overall the most helpful references for providing information on herbal and dietary supplements. The Natural Therapeutics Pocket Guide was the most helpful book reference.

Conclusions: These results will facilitate the retrieval of useful information on herbal and dietary supplements and enable healthcare professionals to determine appropriate allocation of resources as they build a drug information library for handling requests about these products.