Concomitant complementary and alternative medicine utilization amongst hypertensive patients on conventional therapy

Abstract

There has been documented evidence of the fast growing rate of the knowledge and use of Complementary and Alternative medicine (CAM) Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) in developed and developing countries and it’s increasingly popularity amongst patients as well as healthcare providers.1 The utilization of CAM products has been attributable to several factors which include fear or resentment of conventional medicine, the perceived negative side effects, over prescribing and failure of conventional medicine to meet the emotional needs of the patients all constituting the “push effects” on the one side. This study better blood pressure control among participants on conventional treatment only compared to those on conventional and CAM. In a resource poor nation as Nigeria where over 90% of health financing is out of pocket, additional financial cost with no additional benefit amounts to waste, not to mention the problem of adverse reactions that concomitant use may cause.