Herbal remedies today [abstract]

Over the last two decades, phytotherapy, or botanical medicine, and other "non-conventional" therapies have become increasingly prevalent in many countries around the world. Many actions involving WHO and other official agencies have been initiated concerning the regulatory situation, especially for herbal products, to provide reliable information and, further, to break down the barriers between western conventional medicine and complementary/alternative therapies. Alternative models of healthcare have been evolving quite rapidly, and research activity has been directed to the issues of quality, safety and efficacy of the traditional herbal remedies, modern phytomedicinals and the nutraceuticals. In this paper, a critical review has been undertaken of recent scientific and clinical studies which describe a variety of herbal medicinal preparations. An evaluation has been made of reports describing the knowledge, attitudes and practices of healthcare professionals towards herbal medicine. The findings have been translated into suggestions intended to encourage, and to enable, healthcare professionals to raise their awareness, and to improve their knowledge of, the established limitations and benefits of various formulations of herbal medicinal products in current use. (AU)

Behaviour disorders among a sample of Jamaican adolescents

Most maladjusted children's behaviour is different in quantity rather than quality from the behaviour of other children. The prevalence of behaviour disorders among a sample of 13 and 14 year old Jamaican high school and all age school adolescents was examined. The identification of aetiological factors involved in behaviour disorders was also attempted. Teachers can improve their assessment of maladjustment in children through observations of children's behaviour. The Revised Behaviour Problem Checklist R.B.P.C. was found to be a useful measure of common behaviour disorders and showed that Jamaican adolescents had a higher prevalence of behaviour disorders than their North American counterparts. An instrument assessing the adolescent's psycological adjustment - the Personality Screening Inventory P.S.I. was also found to be an indicator of behaviour disorders, and it seems that the R.B.P.C. used in conjunction with the P.S.I. would provide a more complete picture of the adolescent's problems. Males scored higher on most subscales of the R.B.P.C. Maladjusted behaviour was also seen to be affected by long periods of separation from parents especially if the child was quite young. Adolescents from the lower social class groups were significantly higher on behaviour disorders than the middle social class groups. However, this finding may also have been a function of low intellectual level. These results suggest that identification of behaviour disordered children in Jamaica is imperative, so that literacy can be improved and more importantly the normal personality, behavioural and emotional development of tomorrow's adults can be assured (AU)