Background: Herbal medicine is widely used by individuals with mental health problems, although research on their health characteristics and health care utilization patterns—including concomitant treatment with conventional mental health care and psychotropic medication—remains limited.
Methods: We gathered data from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R), a representative survey of US adults in which diagnoses of mental disorders were based on a fully structured diagnostic interview.
Results: Our analysis found that NCS-R respondents with mental disorders were significantly more likely to have used herbal medicines for mental health problems than respondents who did not meet criteria for a mental disorder. Users of herbal medicines for mental health problems were likely to utilize conventional health care as well, particularly conventional psychiatric medication. Herbal use also was associated with having multiple comorbid medical problems.
Conclusions: A substantial proportion of US adults use herbal medicine to treat mental health problems. Herbal medicine is frequently used concomitantly with conventional health care, including prescription psychotropic medication. Herbal use also is associated with having multiple chronic medical problems. These factors increase the potential for interactions between herbal medicines and psychiatric and nonpsychiatric medications.