Use of industrialized herbal medicines by patients attended at the basic health units in the County of Pinhais, Paraná, Brazil

Abstract

The present article studied the use of industrialized phytotherapies by patients attended at the basic health units in Pinhais county, located in the metropolitan region of Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil. This is a quantitative, observational and cross-sectional study that was conducted by semi-structured questionnaire interviews that were used as a data collection instrument. The population sample consisted of 267 patients from basic health care organizations. Regardless of gender or age, 56.2% of the interviewed participants reported using industrialized herbal medicines, of which 21.3% acquired their drugs from drugstores from around the county. Patients reported positive results using industrialized herbal medicines (89.33%), of whom women were predominant, making up (80%) (p<0.05). Among the drugs used by all the patients, “guaco” syrup was the most frequent (34%). The present study demonstrates the good acceptance by patients of treatments that involve integrative practices, such as herbal medicine, but when a drug has a vegetal origin, the idea that these products do not cause adverse effects persists.