Research Information System
HealthMED, vol.6, no.6, pp.2185-2194, 2012 (SCI-Expanded)
Background: The popularity of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has increased and has been used extensively in cardiovascula r disease (CVD) patients. We aimed to determine prevalence, types of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), interactions between CAM and medicine therapy in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Methods: A systematic literature review was performed for the 10-year period. "Complementary and alternative medicine", "cardiovascular disease", "hypertension", "herbal medicine", "drug interactions", "nonprescription medications" were used as key search terms. Results: A total of 45 articles were located, six of them were national studies, and 39 of them were international literature. High prevalence use of CAM was 28.3% and 72.5% in national studies, and 9.2% and 80.9% in international studies. The patients commonly preferred biological-based treatments as CAM such as ginseng, garlic, echinacea, and ginkgo. Conclusions: It is suggested that health professionals should conduct further research about CAM therapies in CVD and develop guidelines related to CAM. In order to identify the effects, orientate clinical results and safe use of CAM, randomized controlled studies, with adequate sample sizes in full-length and statistically powerful studies are required in CVD.