Evidence
St. John's Wort is the herb with the best evidence of efficacy in mild to moderate depression. This herb has been used for literally thousands of years to treat depression and may be a good starting point for patients looking for more natural medications.
Now that you have learned about St. John's Wort, continue to the next section to learn about SAMe.
According to a 2004 Cochrane review (Linde), high quality studies tend to show that St. John's Wort is effective for mild to moderate depression compared to placebo. Nevertheless, more recent, larger, very high quality stuies show little benefit of the standardized extract over placebo. These newer trials were more likely to include patients with documented major depressive disorder (MDD). Authors conclusions were that the likely benefit of St. John's Wort is small for patients with MDD, especially if symptoms were long lasting. Patients with depressive symptoms without an official diagnosis of MDD may do better with St. John's Wort.
(Frank Mayfield, Hypericum pyramidatum GREAT ST. JOHN'S WORT, flickr. CC: BY-SA 2.0. Obtained on June 21, 2009.)