Safety and Effectiveness of Herbs and Pharmaceuticals

After reading the OP a few times, I've come to the conclusion that I really don't know what this thread is about.Even so, I thought I'd throw out a few comments to try and stir debate.When I see someone promoting "natural" products, it is usually a substance that has not been shown to work effectively and instead of admitting to a lack of research to support its effectiveness they often move the goalposts and whine about things like big pharmaceutical companies.Lets talk about depression medications.The mainstay treatment for most types of depression usually begins with SSRI's (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors). But check this out...However, one herb that has shown to be effective is St. John's Wort. It has a side effect profile similar to placebo. To put it another way, its about as harmful to you as drinking water. Now check this out...I've spent a lot of time in Detox and on the Psych ward lately (working, not as a patient - I know what you guys were thinkin ) and I've never seen anyone taking St John's Wort, but dozens of my patients were on SSRI's. Why are people taking these drugs and suffering all these side effects when St John's Wort seems just as good and with virtually no side effects?

Hi Apothecus, I'm aware that there is at least one study that shows that SJW isn't effective for MAJOR depression and that study avoided testing patients with mild and moderate depression which is where the positive effects of SJW would likely have been more clinically significant. I never said SJW works for all types of depression in all circumstances. No antidepressants do. What I do contend is that it is effective for some types of depression in some circumstances. If you disagree with that, I'd love to hear it. I suspect you don't like wiki so I dug up one of the journal articles that tested the effectiveness of SJW. I even did an APA style reference and everything. Hope you enjoyed it Lets go back to this point for a moment... ...and the previous study you mentioned which I found here. I presume you will agree that SSRI's are effective based on the "years of clinical trials," if you don't then please correct me.
In that study you brought up, they compared SJW, a placebo, and an SSRI (sertraline). Their findings were... It seems that placebos are superior to SJW AND the SSRI for treating major depression!!!
(according to the study you provided. Thanks for that)Incidentally, the other point I'm making is that the side-effect profile of SJW is lower than other antidepressants. If you disagree with that, I'd love to hear more about that too.Hi Granny magda! I'm not saying that SJW is harmless, all I'm saying is that the side-effects of SJW is markedly less than more conventional antidepressants.