The National Institute of Mental Health/National Center for Complementary
and Alternative Medicine/ODS Clinical Trial on St. John's Wort
There is considerable public interest in claims that extracts from the
herb Hypericum perforatum, commonly known as St. John's wort,
may be an effective treatment for depression. Although
St. John's wort is widely prescribed in Europe, no studies of its long-term
use have been conducted, and published studies have treated different types
of patients and have used several different doses. The NIH National
Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), in collaboration with the
National Center for Complementary
and Alternative Medicine (formerly the Office of Alternative
Medicine) and the ODS, is beginning the first U.S. large-scale controlled
clinical trial on St. John's
wort to assess whether it has a significant therapeutic effect in patients
with clinical depression.
This 3-year study, coordinated by Jonathan Davidson, M.D., at Duke University
Medical Center, will include 336 patients with major depression, as defined
by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition.
Patients will be assigned randomly to one of three treatments for an eight-week
trial. One-third of the participants will receive a uniform dose (900 mg
daily) of St. John's wort, another third will receive placebo, and the
other will take a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), commonly
prescribed for depression.
|
