The rate of satisfactory treatment outcomes in moderate and severe depression is at least as high with a plant extract of St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum) as with the synthetic antidepressant paroxetine. This is the finding to emerge from a new research study recently published in advance in the online issue of the renowned British Medical Journal.
In a randomised, controlled double-blind trial, Professor Dr. med. Armin Szegedi (Department of Psychiatry, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Charit? Medical School, Berlin) and his colleagues compared the clinical efficacy of the special hypericum extract WS 5570 with that of the standard antidepressant paroxetine, one of a class of medicines known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI). The clinical trial was conducted in a total of 251 depressed patients between the ages of 18 and 70 years and suffering from moderate or severe depression.
At the end of the study the researchers impressively confirmed the efficacy of the herbal medicine: after 6 weeks’ treatment half of the patients receiving the hypericum extract (61 out of 122) showed a marked decline in their depressive symptoms. In the group of patients treated with the SSRI, comparable success was achieved in 30% (43 out of 122).
The good tolerability of the phytopharmaceutical, already known from numerous other studies, was again confirmed by this study: during treatment with paroxetine, the patients reported a total of 269 adverse events. In the hypericum group there were far fewer adverse events (172 reports). The events reported most commonly in both patient groups were gastrointestinal disorders; no patients experienced serious adverse events.
Overall conclusion of Professor Szegedi and his colleagues: St. John’s wort is an effective alternative in the treatment of depression, even in moderate to severe cases.
For this indication patients can also have this herbal remedy reimbursed by their statutory health insurance (SHI), even though the preparation is not a prescription-only medicine.