DermalPATCHES - St. John's Wort

St. John's wort ("wort" is Old English for "plant") is the herbal antidepressant. Herbalists have known this for many years, but interest widened after the 1996 publication of a major study in the British Medical Journal.

Researchers from Ludwig Maximillian University in Munich , Germany , and the Audie Murphy VA Medical in San Antonio , Texas , analyzed 23 previously published studies of St. John's Center wort, which included 1,757 people suffering mild to moderate depression. Among the subjects taking placebos, 22% reported significant relief of depression using standard tests. But among the subjects taking St. John's wort, the figure was 55% -- a significant difference.

Latest News:  The studies of St. John's wort for depression have tested the herb on people suffering mild-to-moderate depression. But it can also help those with severe depression, according to a new study.  At a recent conference sponsored by New York University , Norman Rosenthal, M.D., chief of environmental psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda , Maryland , described a study that tested the herb on 209 people with severe depression. At double the usual dose, St. John's wort produced significant benefits. Dr. Rosenthal recommended it especially for the elderly because it causes so few side effects and does not interact with other medications (except other antidepressants).

Existing Medical Research:  Since the publication of the major 23-study analysis in the British Medical Journal, other studies have confirmed St. John's wort's value as an antidepressant:  * In a German trial involving 209 people with depression, researchers compared the effects of the herb (600 mg of a standardized extract) to those of the pharmaceutical antidepressant imipramine (Tofranil, 50 mg). Response was defined as an improvement of at least 50% in a standard test of mood. But the herb group reported significantly fewer and less severe side effects.

* At the University of Salzburg, Austria, based on 105 depression sufferers , on standard psychiatric tests of mood, those taking the herb improved significantly more than those taking nothing. Few of the people taking St. John's wort reported any side effects.

Additional studies are currently underway at Maryland 's National Institutes of Health.
Common Uses