Question:
I am currently considering discontinuing my use of Prozac (only 10 mg
a day) and trying a more herbal method. Has anyone had any experience
with more natural anti-depressants? Also, has anyone here experienced
or heard of any notable withdrawal symptoms from Prozac?
Answer:
St. John's Wort caused me to have high blood pressure while on it. Be
warned. It went back to normal as soon as I stopped. so do some AD's, so I don't think high blood pressure is limited to St.
John's Wort. Rather, I think it depends on the individual. The other thing is that it takes a-lot of time to get Prozac out of the body
. St Johns Wort and pill Antidepressants still in the system can be very
dangerous . Before seeking treatment , St Johns Wort did nothing at all for me . Later ,
I told my psychologist that and he said that it only works for *very* mild
depression . With any herb , you have no way of knowing the strength from
bottle to bottle . For me , it is only AD or no AD , but I will never waste
my money on St Johns Wort ever again .
It's very dangerous to use if you are using other meds. Sent me into a
nasty manic phase and then the hospital. As others have noted, you should try to allow some time to elapse
between your last dose of Prozac and initiating the St. John's Wort.
It's probably not a big deal in your case because you're taking so
little Prozac, but St. John's Wort combined with an SSRI has caused
serotonin syndrome, a life threatening condition. That be said, I found St. John's Wort gave me a slight lift but was
grossly inferior to Effexor or the SSRIs I've tried, one of which was
Prozac. Some people have certainly found relief with it, but I found
it to have little therapeutic value, and I'm someone who has had a
significant positive response to eight of the nine prescription drugs
I've tried. As for Prozac withdrawal symptoms, it is by far the least
problematic SSRI in that regard and is unlikely to generate withdrawal
symptoms because of its extremely long half life.
Not true. Note the dose here, 1800 mg/day. Dose proportional to symptoms,
and response nearly identical to imipramine (an older, but very effective
drug, often used as a "last resort" in hospitalized depressives). The
subjects here had initial HAM-D scores of about 25. That is severely
depressed by any definition, anywhere in the world. LI 160 is marketed in North America as Kira, and as Jarsin 300 in Europe. A
very similar product is mentioned in the literature as WS 5572, and is
marketed as Perika in North America, and as Neuroplant 300 in Europe.
It is unfortunate that not all herbal products are of good quality, but that
is the way Big Pharmaceutica wants it to be. How unfortunate for the
shareholders if someone got well by using a product that cannot be patented.
Of course, not all drugs/therapies are equally effective for all
individuals, but that speaks more to the heterogeneity of the disorder than
to the effectiveness of any particular treatment.
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.
FWIW, SJW is more likely to cause side effects than prozac. SJW contains a
mild MAO-I, chemically similar to such drugs as Nardil and Parnate, the
strongest and most dangerous of the anti-depressants. The most common side
effect of SJW is light-sensitivity. If you burn easily as it is, you'll
want to avoid it or wear sunscreen any time you go outside. People often think that a medication is somehow safer just because it occurs
naturally. Belladonna and Hemlock also occur naturally. I wouldn't
recommend ingesting them. A man-made water molecule is no different from
one that falls from the sky.
Think about it. In order for a naturally occurring anti-depressant to
work, it must function in a similar way, acting on the same neurological
structures, as a man made one. There is no differentiating a man made
substance from a naturally occurring one by the time it has passed through
the blood-brain barrier. Chemicals are chemicals. It doesn't matter where
they come from. Which would you expect to be more effective? A naturally
occurring substance that happens to have anti-depressant properties, or a
substance made by man with the express purpose of having anti-depressant
properties? Which is going to be more pure?
Yes, SJW is a mild anti-depressant. By mild, read weak. It's generally
agreed to be less effective than any modern man made anti-depressant. It
has a higher instance of side effects than man-made anti-depressants as
it's a less pure substance which was not made with the express purpose of
being an anti-depressant.
I'm not saying that prescription anti-depressant are 100% effective and
without side-effects. In fact, they can have some pretty nasty
side-effects. So can SJW, though. If you're going to take a substance
with the potential for such side effects, it makes sense that you'd want to
be under a physician's care while doing so.
