Anxiety/Depression - Herbal - Larry Hoover or anyone else please help ?
Q.There were some fundamental flaws in the study, only discovered if you read the full text. For example, in the SJW treatment arm, the SJW was standardized at a minimum of 0.12% hypericin, quite below the market standard of 0.3%. Giving 900 or even 1200 mg/day of 0.12% hypericin falls far below the standard dose for mild to moderate depression, and must therefore be substantially less than that required for full-blown major depression as defined in the DSM. Not quite a fair trial, eh?
A.Until people of the United States wake up to the fact that only group which benefits from an unregulated herbal supplement market are the major pharmaceutical companies, nothing can or will change. The Germans have provided a clear and simple model for approving and regulating herbal products. Instead, as time goes on, consumer and professional confidence in non-standard treatments are gradually eroded because rampant fraud and exorbitant claims go wholly unchallenged. The wealthy rule." The special extract of St. John's wort, LI 160, exhibited a superior antidepressant efficacy compared to placebo in several controlled trials. Two further trials demonstrated a similar reduction of depressive symptomatology under LI 160 compared to tricyclics. All these trials were performed in mildly to moderately depressed patients. The present investigation was a randomized, controlled, multicentre, 6-week trial comparing 1800 mg LI 160/die to 150 mg imipramine/die in severely depressed patients according to ICD-10. The main efficacy parameter, a reduction of the total score of the Hamilton Depression Scale, proved both treatment regimens very effective at the end of the 6 week treatment period (mean values 25.3 to 14.5 in the LI 160 group and 26.1 to 13.6 in the imipramine group), but not statistically equivalent within a a-priori defined 25% interval of deviation. The analysis of subgroups with more than a 33% and 50% reduction of the HAMD total score justified the assumption of equivalence within a 25% deviation interval. This view was also supported by the global efficacy ratings from patients and investigators. Regarding adverse events, the nonrejection of the nonequivalence hypothesis denotes a superiority of the herbal antidepressant. These main result indicate that LI 160 might be a treatment alternative to the synthetic tricyclic antidepressant imipramine in the majority of severe forms of depressions. However, more studies of this type must be performed before a stronger recommendation can be made.
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