New St. John’s Wort And Major Depression Study
I guess it’s just my luck. I just posted an article about how St. John’s Wort does buttkiss for major depression and now there’s a new massive clinical study out by the Cochrane Review that claims just the opposite. But still, you never want to take St. John’s Wort AND antidepressants. Not unless you really get a thrill out of wasting your time and your money.
Of course, you should never take any kind of herbal remedy without first consulting your doctor. There are many other medicines that can react badly with St. John’s Wort.
Study Details
This wasn’t just one clinical trial but 29, bringing the number of human guinea pigs with major depression up to a staggering 5,489. The form of St. John’s wort used in these trials was an extract. A placebo and an antidepresant were the other things used to help treat the human guinea pigs. All of the human guinea pigs were diagnosed with major depression as according to the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression. (There’s a scale for depression? I guess it’s like Do, Ray, Me, Fa, So — Ah, The Hell With It).
The study also noted that most of the human guinea pigs taking the St. John’s Wort extract were able to particupate in the entire trial length and didn’t need to drop out due to bad side effects.
Several of the 29 studies were done in Germany, where doctors normally prescribe St. John’s Wort for major depression. It’s considered a normal medicine in German culture. Not suprsingly, the best results for St. John’s Wort came from the German studies. This does imply just a wee bit that what we believe can often make a medicine more potent.
How Does It Work?
It’s thought that St. John’s Wort works just like an antidepressant in that it effects your brain’s serotonin. It helps increase serotonin, which helps you feel a bit better. Serotonin is also thought to be responisble for migraines and epilepsy, but just exactly how is still unknown.
One of the reasons why more attention is being taken to St. John’s Wort is that it can offer some people the benefits of a man-made antidepressant, but without some of the side effects.
October 21st, 2008 at 8:16 pm
[...] despite St. John’s Wort being touted as a nautral antidepressant, the herb was not given its name because St. John had [...]