Tuesday, January 25, 2011
J Psychosoc Nurs Ment Health Serv. 2010 Nov;48(11):20-4. doi: 10.3928/02793695-20100930-99. Epub 2010 Oct 22.
Update on St. John's Wort.
Howland RH.
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15213, USA. HowlandRH@upmc.edu
Abstract
Herbal preparations for depression are often preferred over pharmaceutical drugs because they are available without prescription and because they are commonly assumed to be safe. St. John's wort (SJW) is one of the best-known and best-selling herbal therapies for depression. Meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials of SJW for major depression suggest that SJW is superior to placebo, is similarly effective compared with conventional antidepressant drugs, and tends to have fewer side effects compared with antidepressant agents, but there is a large degree of heterogeneity among the placebo-controlled studies, and trials from German-speaking countries tend to report more favorable findings. A small number of studies suggest SJW is safe to use during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Although SJW is relatively well tolerated, it is prone to many important drug-drug interactions.
PMID: 21053786 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]