United States
sales of dietary supplements exceeded $18 billion in 2002, indicating
that dietary supplement use is common among the American public.
This report describes a survey of academic pharmacists and their
use of dietary supplements and herbs. To date, most data comes
from retail or community pharmacists, so a survey was developed
to collect information regarding dietary supplement and herb usage
from academic pharmacists. Academic pharmacists are probably the
most knowledgeable group in regards to assessing the clinical
value of supplements.
Our results showed that 54% of academic pharmacists have used
dietary supplements or herbs. However, it is interesting to note
that most of the dietary supplements listed were not in the top
ten most commonly used supplements. In addition, there was no
excessive use of supplements or herbs by this group of pharmacists
since the majority of respondents listed multivitamins.
Keywords:
Medicine, Herbal.
Dietary Supplements. utilization. Faculty. Pharmacists. United States.
