"Effective" in the context of the text I quoted refers to efficacy against depression, but you need to also take the side effects into account when deciding between drugs. Since those vary on a case by case basis and can be significant, there are many cases where St. John's wort is overall the better deal.
You are just dodging and fudging. Let me explain why reality matters.
Those like you who have the blessing of decent mental health and do not understand - seem quite unwilling to understand in many cases - that those such as me who have to deal with this shit for all their lives can be deeply and negatively affected by you lot posting garbage.
If it were a physical disease such as cancer you might be a lot less inclined to do it as you see the immediate link, from lack of proven efficacy to a fatal outcome.
Mental unhealth, though, seems fair game to you. You are insulated from the negative consequences of your idiotic prognostications so you posting crap is like giving a child matches to play with in someone else's house. Not your house, not your house fire, not your problem.
Please grow a little humanity and understanding; it's not a game for us, it can go from our lives made difficult, to our lives irretrievably wrecked.
I'm sorry that I seem to have offended you with what I wrote, but I honestly don't understand why. St. John's wort can be better in terms of side effects than synthetic antidepressants, with similar antidepressant effects, for some people. That's all I'm saying and that's an evidence based statement.
I started looking into St. John's wort more closely because I saw the positive experiences that people close to me had with it. It's not all just theory to me.
All that said, if you are really interested in the topic you should probably not listen to me but rather look at the actual studies that were done with it. I came away from that convinced that it's at least worth a shot for mild to medium cases of depression, and that it is underused relative to the synthetic alternatives.
Your heart's in the right place but that's not enough.
Do this for me: suppose someone's taking prozac for depression. Given that St. John's Wort is also an antidepressant, how well would it work to have someone take both at the same time? How much will they complement each other?
Please answer that WITHOUT LOOKING IT UP, just based on common sense and logic. I'll explain why.
Since they're both presumably SSRIs (in the case of St. John's wort this is not 100% clear, since it seems to have some dopaminergic and noradrenergic activity as well), the activity on serotonergic signaling would be enhanced, possibly up to the point where that becomes toxic (i.e., causes a serotonin syndrome) - that would depend on dosage. Additionally at least St. John's wort has IIRC some activity on CYP enzymes in the liver that could lead to interactions, but that one I would need to look up. Either way you probably shouldn't do it, but why would you?
First the why would I. Because if you are in that state, anything's worth a try. My naive logic was if you stack antidepressants you get more effect. Yea, well, not the way I intended.
Prozac is an SSRI, StJW is an MAOI. SSRI + MAOI = serotonin event. I was lucky not to end up in hospital.
St. John's Wort has possible side effects including photosensitivity and eye problems (glaucoma or cataracts, can't remember). You can't say which is best or better, or even recommend anything except on an individual level. You can't talk about 'best' or 'better' except on an average level and you really need to understand what's appropriate for the individual patient. For example, if someone's struggling on prozac with the side effects then why not have them come off and try SJWort? What have they got to lose?
Quite a lot if things go wrong. The prozac has to clear from your system (weeks at least) and SJW may not work - so go back to prozac, no problem right?
But going back to prozac may not work - when you come off antidepressents and go back onto them, sometimes they don't work again. Unusual bit it happens. That is a really terrifying prospect if you have depression, so you may (as I did) choose to continue with bad side effects of prozac rather than take the chance (assuming the person is even aware this can happen). The alternative is too horrible.
So what I'm saying is I quite agree SJW may be a valid treatment but there's too much complexity involved for a layman to recommend anything. By all means suggest they talk to their doctor (or pharmacist) about it, and educate them as far as you can, but don't push any treatment, it's just too complex and risky a topic without decent knowledge.
