Study of natural product adverse events in adult HIV-infected patients in Canada.

Introduction: Many individuals living with HIV use natural health products (NHPs) in an effort to decrease medication side effects and to enhance overall well-being.

Methods: An active surveillance study of adult patients (≥ 18 years) with HIV was conducted between 2012 and 2014 to detect prescription drug and NHP use and associated adverse events (AEs) in the last month.

Results: Of the 167 participants, 85 (50.9%) took prescription medications only, three (1.8%) took NHPs only, 75 (44.9%) took NHPs and prescription medications concurrently, and four (2.4%) took neither. Patients who used both prescription drugs and NHPs concurrently were more than three times more likely to experience an AE compared with those who used prescription drugs only (OR, P = 0.003, 95% CI: 1.47-6.91).

Conclusions: Increased AEs are reported in patients with HIV who combine NHPs and prescription medications, and no serious AEs were reported. Active surveillance was found to be feasible in this clinical setting.