FDA Perspectives on the Use of Postmarketing Reporting Systems to Evaluate Drug Interactions with CAHP

In the United States, the use of products, including botanicals, thought to fall within the realm of complementary and alternative medicine is very common. It is difficult to obtain reliable estimates of use or to compare many of the current publications in this area because of diverse definitions for categorizing these products (e.g., dietary supplement, food supplement, herbal medicine, natural remedy, traditional medicine, etc.) in both the United States and elsewhere. A recent report on the use of complementary and alternative medicine by U.S. adults in 2002 indicated that approximately 19% of the population used ‘‘nonvitamin, nonmineral, and natural products,’’ 19% used folk medicine, and 3% used megavitamin therapy in the past 12 months (1).