How ace is St John's wort

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Lots of people know the evidence for its usefulness in mild to moderate depression but the Mayo Clinic lists a huge range of uses (though the quality of the conclusions from the evidence is less strong).

Somatoform disorders, Anxiety, ADHD and OCD have lower quality evidence showing this herb can treat many disorders usually treated with stronger chemicals such as SSRIs.

I remember when I first came across St John's wort. It wasn't in relation to mental health directly. It was as a come down cure. After taking Ectsacy (MDMA though usually other compounds like MDEA) there is a period of low and it used to be pretty intense for me.

I looked for lots of treatments so I could keep on enjoying that drug and ended up finding lots of antidepressants, from drugs like 5-HTP (available over the counter), bananas, Marmite and, strangely, beer. Yes. A beer is a post-Ecstacy binge favourite for many clubbers though it's not used to combat the depression directly but used to help chill out during the Sunday comedown.

St John's wort is available over the counter. People who've tried antidepressants may be surprised at just how mild the side effects are and how nicer the effect can be. Many might ask their doctor why they're prescribed SSRIs instead of SJW. From what I've read in GP magazine doctors don't know what dose to use. This gap is probably because the BNF, the manual which doctors use to assess which chemical to use, doesn't have SJW in the CNS section as far as I am aware. My dad only has the Children's BNF lying around at the moment and the only advice there is that it shouldn't be used on kids because of the interactions (which are listed at length in the appendix).

In Germany it is commonly prescribed for mild to moderate depression and I've used the "sunshine herb" many a time for it's antidepressant action. The main side effect I notice is poor bladder control but that varies with time but this may be better with tablets rather than capsule pills.