Mixing alternative, conventional medicine can put kids at risk

Doctors need to ask — and parents need to tell. That’s the upshot of a new study showing a distressing number of Canadians aren’t telling their physician, or pharmacist, when treating their kids with both alternative and conventional medicines. That’s a combination that carries potential risk to patients, especially the very young.

A variety of possible interactions can result when blending standard prescription drugs with alternative medicine, especially herbal remedies. For example, mixing aspirin and ginkgo may aggravate bleeding while other combinations, like taking the heart drug digoxin and St. John’s wort, can reduce the drug’s benefit. There are scores of other possible risks.

Yet almost 20 per cent of parents whose children have chronic illnesses, at two major Canadian pediatric hospitals, report blending mainstream and alternative medicines without telling health care practitioners who could warn of dangerous interactions. The finding was published in the journal Pediatrics on Monday, and it should put both physicians and parents on alert.

Researchers at Edmonton’s Stollery Children’s Hospital and the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, in Ottawa, surveyed a total of 926 families with kids in cardiology, cancer, neurology, gastroenterology and respiratory clinics. The families reported using a wide array of complementary and alternative approaches — including aromatherapy, employed by about 17 per cent, “energy healing” tried by almost 10 per cent, and homeopathy, used by 14 per cent.

Heavy reliance on such therapies is of some concern because there’s little scientific evidence that they actually work. The findings also show almost 30 per cent report taking herbal medicines, and almost 40 per cent saying their kids had used fish oil, hormone-based products or other miscellaneous treatments. And some of these substances can result in unexpected problems when taken with prescriptions drugs.

To blunt the risk, researchers urge doctors to make a point of asking patients about any alternative medicines they may be taking. Families, in turn, should be frank with their physicians. Open discussion is the best way to ward off unexpected harm to kids already burdened by illness.