Best Drug Info on Non-
Commercial Web Sites
Excerpt By Ned Stafford, Reuters Health

HEIDELBERG (Reuters Health) - People surfing the Internet in search of quality information on medicines may be more successful if they visit purely informational Web sites, rather than commercial Web sites trying to peddle medicines, according to German researchers.

Noting that the Internet is now one of the most important--but unregulated--sources of information about medicines, researchers at the University of Heidelberg's Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacoepidemiology studied 208 English-language Web sites that contained information on St. John's wort, an increasingly popular herbal medicine used to fight depression.

The researchers evaluated the quality of information about the herb, including accuracy as reflected by whether Web sites stated the herb's correct use and mentioned drugs that can interact with St. John's wort.

They found that only 22% of the Web sites correctly listed depression as the only reason for use of St. John's wort and only 22% identified at least one drug interaction with St. John's wort. Only two Web sites gave a full list of possible side effects.

In an article in the latest issue of the American Journal of Medicine, the researchers concluded, "The content quality of sites about St. John's wort was generally poor. Our results suggest that Internet users should prefer noncommercial sites that reference the information to scientific publications when searching for drug information."

Dr. Meret Martin-Facklam, a member of the team that conducted the research, told Reuters Health that correct and comprehensive information on the Internet is especially necessary for herbal medicines, which are widely available without a doctor or pharmacist consultation.

SOURCE: American Journal of Medicine 2002;113:740-745.

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