Alternative Therapies
Mostly Untested in Children
Excerpt By Melissa Schorr, Reuters Health

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters Health) - Giving alternative medications to children may be dangerous, doctors told an audience at the annual American Academy of Pediatrics meeting here on Tuesday.

Pediatricians warned that that alternative medicines--such as herbal and nutritional supplements--have not been well tested among children and may even have dangerous ramifications.

``We are concerned parents self-medicating extends to medicating their child,'' said Dr. Alan D. Woolf, a professor of pediatrics at Harvard University and head of clinical toxicology at Children's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. ``In some cases, this can be harmful to the child.''

In the same session, Dr. Michael Artman, a professor of pediatrics at New York University, noted that approximately 20% of children in the general population report using some form of complementary and alternative medicine such as hypnosis, acupuncture, homeostasis, herbal or dietary supplements.

The percentage may be as high as 30% to 40% among children with chronic diseases such as asthma, cancer and diabetes, Artman said. However, few tests of such remedies' safety have been carried out in children.

``There aren't many studies on how herbs affect children, we are always extrapolating from adults,'' Woolf explained. ``This isn't to raise the scare factor, but it's simply an unknown.''

Artman said that compounds that are safe in adults are not likely to be harmful in children, however, children may need an adjusted dose.

Patients should also be made aware that unlike traditional medications, there is no US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation or quality control on what the products actually contain. ``With herbs and supplements, it's always buyer beware,'' Woolf said.

Doctors need to ask their patients what alternative medicines they are using and help counsel them on safety, Woolf added.

``Pediatricians should ask the unasked question: are they using complementary and alternative medicine for their children?'' Woolf said. ``We need to give parents the information they're seeking whether they should use these therapies for their children.''

Doctors should be supportive of these measures if the benefits are based on evidence and the risks are seemingly low, he suggested.

However, doctors should also debunk the myth that because an herbal medicine is ``natural,'' it must be safe. For example, the herb Comfrey, available in some teas, was yanked by the FDA for causing liver damage, especially in children.

Other seemingly innocuous herbs can interfere with normal blood clotting and should be discontinued well ahead of any surgery.

``You don't want a 17-year-old girl going in for...surgery to be taking ginseng or garlic, because she'll bleed and bleed,'' Artman noted. ``You want to know that ahead of time.''

Reference Source 89

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