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St. John’s wort, an herb long thought to be effective for the treatment of depression, is used widely in many countries for this purpose and is available over-the-counter in the United States (but not approved by the FDA as an antidepressant). But clinical studies have sometimes yielded conflicting results, in part because of variations in study designs (such as the exact definition of depression) as well as variations in the preparation of the herbal extract and the dosages used. But a new meta-analysis has reviewed 29 separate studies involving nearly 5500 patients and found that, overall, St. John’s wort was more effective than placebo and similar in efficacy to both older antidepressants (such as those called tricyclics of which amitriptyline is typical) and newer ones (such as those called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, of which Prozac and Celexa are typical). Most of the patients studied […]

Original post by natalieb and weightlossopinions.com

According to a recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA),St. John’s Wort is ineffective in the treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children and adolescents. Moreover, hundreds of newspaper articles, Internet postings and TV/radio news reports have parroted these findings, widely sounding the death knell for this particular herbal remedy in ADHD. But a critical look at the research publication in JAMA leads me to conclude that the study actually adds little to our understanding of whether or not St. John’s Wort is effective for ADHD.
There are at least four major flaws with this study; namely, it was small, it was short, it used subpotent test “drug,” and one of its researchers is widely known to be on the payroll of big pharma. Let’s take a further look.
A grand total of only 27 subjects received the study “drug,” while another 27 received […]

Original post by natalieb and weightlossopinions.com