Is It Safe To Use St John's Wort for Depression?

Ever heard of the natural herb St. John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum)? It can be counter treatment for the treatment of mild depression, 12 percent of Americans report using it at least once a year. St. John's wort have similar action to antidepressants, including monoamine oxidase inhibitors, serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, and action sigma receptor. St. John's Wort has been proven superior to placebo control in some earlier studies, and have the same effect as tricyclic antidepressants in the treatment of depression. However, these early studies were poorly controlled, and did not use the standard definition of depression, making it difficult to draw conclusions on the effect of St. John's wort.

There are several recent and Meta-analysis of controlled trials, the validity of the information provided St. John's wort. Large-scale placebo-controlled randomized trial using appropriate methods in the treatment of severe cases of major depression St. John's wort no significant difference and placebo (1). However, direct one-to-one comparison to the St. John's wort ssri paroxetine, it can be better to reduce the symptoms of depression in the treatment of severe depression, 71% of St. John's wort for the treatment of patients 50%, reducing symptoms compared with 60% of paroxetine (2).

Headache is the only side effects with St. John's wort, which is more common than placebo. The second study funded by the National Health and performances from depression Hypericum perforatum Experimental Study Group (hdtsg) showed that St. John's grass, is not more effective than placebo, but not worse than antidepressants Comparison (3). Response to 32%, placebo, of which 25 per cent of sertraline and 24%, St. John's wort. St. John's wort caused increased swelling, frequent urination and sexual dysfunction, and sertraline cause diarrhea, nausea, sexual dysfunction, forgetful, frequent urination, sweat, and more than a placebo. My suggestion is, if you want to try St. John's wort for depression, which is determined attempt. You can get some help, and to avoid trouble to the doctor, and the potential risks and side effects are low.