Supplementary Material for: Berücksichtigung von Wechsel- und Nebenwirkungen bei pflanzlichen Arzneimitteln in deutschen S3-Leitlinien der AWMF

Herbal remedies have a long history in the medical care ofthe German-speaking regions but they are rarely taken intoaccount in the development of medical guidelines. In a prestudy,our working group analyzed as to how far herbalremedies were taken into consideration in the current interdisciplinaryevidence- and consensus-based S3 medicalguidelines established by the Association of the ScientificMedical Societies (AWMF) in Germany. The aim of thisstudy was to analyze to what extent possible side effectsand interactions of herbal remedies are mentioned in the S3medical guidelines. In January 2015, 134 S3 guidelines werecounted and analyzed. 27.6% (n = 37) of them show 194statements summarized under the term ‘phytotherapy’. Referencesto side effects and interactions can be found in28.4% of the statements (n = 55); 13.9% (n = 27) of thesereferences are backed by the literature. 14 of the statementsdeal with nutritional supplements, 11 are statements aboutphytotherapy in general, and 7 summarize at least 2 medicalplants in 1 statement. Hence, only 23 statements pay attentionto side effects and interactions of individual medicalplants; 14 of these are backed by the literature. These resultsdo not correspond to the standards required by theAWMF, which is due to imprecise terms as well as to theinsufficiently systematic approach in the search for scientificevidence for the safety of medical plants. Here, the Associationfor Phytotherapy may achieve an important contributionto quality improvement.