Re: St John's Wort

Kimmer said:

The other folks who have responded gave you some good info. You should
also know that St. John's wort is only good for mild depression, and
someone with more severe depression will not get any benefit from it.

That may be true, but that's not proven. The results of clinical
trials are conflicting, and no clinical trials performed to date
are without flaws. For example, one very recent trial (_JAMA_,
vol 287, no 14, 4/10/2002) purported to find SJW ineffective
in the treatment of moderately severe major depression, but this
same trial also found setraline (Zoloft -- used as an active control)
to be ineffective. What's going on? More than 30% of placebo-
controlled trials fail to show effects of recognized antidepressants.

A recent trial of SJW in an animal model claims to have shown
that rutin (a natural constituent of SJW) is a necessary cofactor
for the antidepressant action of SJW. No human trial has ever
controlled or reported the level of rutin in their SJW material,
and some SJW extracts contain little or no rutin.