Treatments used in complementary and alternative medicine

Pharmacovigilance in complementary and alternative medicine. Pharmacovigilance in complementary and alternative medicine has attracted much attention worldwide. The awareness of the need for surveillance of adverse reactions to natural health products has stimulated the implementation of a reporting system for suspected adverse reaction in Italy. From April 2002 to March 2007, 233 spontaneous reports of suspected adverse reactions to natural health products were collected. A large proportion of the suspected adverse reactions were serious: hospitalization was reported in 35% of cases; 6% reported life-threatening clinical events, and there were two fatal events. Most of the reported cases involved herbal products (66%); 21 reports were associated with 27 homeopathic preparations, most of which contained a mixture of substances; 14 reports attributed the suspected reactions to products containing propolis.