read an excerpt from
St. John's Wort:
Psychiatry's Herbal Epiphany
a chapter in
Tried and True Remedies From
Nature's Pharmacy
A Keats Good Health Guide
by Syd Baumel
Keats Publishing Inc., New Canaan, Conn.
copyright (c) 1998 by Syd Baumel
In Germany, from which most of the research
[on St. John's Wort -- SJW] has emanated, doctors have taken to prescribing
SJW more often than any other antidepressant -- you-know-Whozac included.
There were nearly 3 million prescriptions in 1993 alone (Linde et al.,
1996). In 1996, SJW mania hit North America. Even the National Institute
of Mental Health felt compelled to initiate its own major multi-center
trial. On Internet newsgroups and mailing lists, no natural antidepressant
-- and possibly no antidepressant drug -- generates as much talk. Of the
SJW users who have shared their impressions on these interactive electronic
bulletin boards or privately with me, some, inevitably, have found no relief,
but most have noted mild to spectacular improvements. Some have hailed
the herb as "a lifesaver," "a miracle," or "a godsend." Here are some of
their tributes:
"St. John's Wort has been like a miracle
for me.... I am constantly thinking to myself, 'Is this how other people
have always felt? How wonderful!"
"My depression's GONE. Till a few months
ago, I'd sit alone at break and wonder if everyone else were just acting
differently than they felt.... I'm a different person inside now!"
"All I know is that I've tried 9 antidepressants...they've
all made me very sick. SJW doesn't."
"[SJW] pulled me out of a 6-7 year bout
of anxiety and depression in 2 weeks.... I've got my life back...."
"The best I've felt [after trying eight
different antidepressant drugs, alone and sometimes in combination] is
with 10 mg Prozac + St. John's Wort.... I just plain feel better and sleep
way better than with 20+ mg Prozac and no St. John's Wort."
"I have been dysthymic [mildly depressed]
for as long as I can remember.... [At the height of a severe depression]
I was borderline suicidal when I started SJW in May 97. Last week, less
than 6 mos. on SJW, my p-doc [psychiatrist] released me and declared me
a "normie".... I tried going off of it this week and after 3 days I was
slipping fast."
"...It has diminished my depressive symptoms
[unsatisfactorily treated with drugs till then] effectively, quickly, but
almost imperceptibly.... [T]he blackness is gone, but everything else remains
as it was.... [I]t has worked for me in a way I never thought possible...."
"[I]t keeps me from feeling and acting
like a raving bitch all the time. My kids want to thank that St. John fellow."
R E F E R E N C E S
Linde,
K., et al., "St. John's Wort for Depression -- an Overview and Meta-Analysis
of Randomised Clinical Trials," British Medical Journal, 313 (Aug
3, 1996):253-8.
View
or order Natural Antidepressants at Amazon.com
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