Contribution to pharmacosurveillance through the study of prevalence of the use of allopathics and phytotherapics in communities assisted by peslutan 2004

Phytotherapics are drugs made of herbs and\or natural products; in the other hand, allopathics correspond to the drugs that are developed in laboratories. Based on those concepts, we studied the used of allopathics and phytotherapics in communities assisted by the Project of Academical Extension Santa Lúcia\Tabuleiro Novo (PESLUTAN). Our main aims were to know the profiles of the target population, to correlate the use of allopathic and phytotherapic drugs, and to statistically analyze the most used phytotherapics. This research was done between July and December of 2004; data were collected through a questionary about the way of manipulation of those drugs by the users. A hundred one people from 14 to 84 years old were interviewed, being 82 women and 19 men. Ninety-six people have already used any kind of allopathic drug, but either a big number of individuals (77) used phytotherapics. Among the most used phytotherapics are the balm-mint and saint-grass. We observed that most of the subjects used both allopathics and phytotherapics, but some used only allopathics and, less frequently, only phytotherapics.