Has anybody tried st john's wort of 5 htp supplement for treatment of anxiety or depression?? I would like to know which is more effective and has less side effects and warnings. Which is supposedly better for anxiety?

Hi kitana

I have tried both and I'm not sure which worked best for me. I used to take the 5htp before bed as it makes me sooooo sleeepy. In fact I enjoyed the deep sleeps it gave me! St John's Wort works good for me too, but does not seem to cause drowsiness like 5htp. SJW is a mild SSRI so you should not take it and 5htp at the same time.
Probably not much help for you to decide there! Trouble is different people have different reactions to these supplements, so you have to try each and see which is most effective for you. I was taking them less for anxiety than for straight-forward deep dark depression.

neo_crone

This month's issue of the GNC magazine has a lot of St John's Wort interaction information. You might swing by a store and look at a copy--it interacts with one of the liver enzymes that metabolize many drugs and so decreases blood levels of some things you might not want lower.

SJW caused kick-butt sunburn for me, and I quit, and I hated the quitting process--didn't taper like I probably should have, NASTY rebound depressive spike.

5-HTP is going to put more serotonin in your brain, but I have no clue about other side effects. I tried it for a few weeks, noticed no appreciable difference, and quit. Will ask a doctor about it later this month.

A different thought: Do you live anywhere that you might could find a center for integrative medicine? Duke Hospital has one (DCIM.org), as does UNC-CH. In addition, there are at least two private-practice MDs in this area who treat "whole-person" problems with alternatives PLUS standard treatment. Maybe someone in a practice like this would be useful.

hmmm so no real changes with anxiety for 5 htp? I'm kinda more interested in that supplement compared to st john's wort. Anyhow I live in the bay area of california and i'm kinda interested about the duke hospital thing. I've been having an ofly hard time finding a good psychiatrist that has time for me or who specializes in teens. Before my doctor moved to Europe I remember I asked her about an alternative for Paxil. I asked her about St John's wort and she didn't seem to like it very much. She told me that since paxil was working well for me but at a high dose then St john's wort will not help much because it's much much milder. She suggusted another supplement similar to st john's wort that she claims is stronger and better but I don't remember the name! It sounded so complex... do you suppose she was refering to 5 htp or some other supplement?

I'd hate to be diagnosing and making suggestions based on "sounds like." To an untrained ear, NAC, 5-HTP, SAM-e, and maybe even glucosamine chondroitin can sound alike, but they have different effects.

You might consider emailing the people at Duke and asking if they know of a similar practice in the Bay Area. If you left coasters didn't invent this stuff, you at least imported it and spread it around. If it made it all the way to Duke, there has to be someone who can look at the bigger picture in your part of the country.

ugh just tried the 5 htp and i felt like i was on risperdal again. my panic attacks got worse! I think i'll try saint johns wort

Be careful with self-medication. St. John's Wort has MANY drug interactions and should be used with great caution. Please take your doctor's advice, rather than relying on a board for drug help.

You'd be safer on something like tryptophan which is for calming. Or extra calcium which also helps with anxiety and sleep. And neither interacts nor interferes.
I hope you will feel better.

You can't buy tryptophan OTC in the United States, after the mess a few years back with a contaminated batch that killed people. It wasn't the amino acid but one of the fillers, and it was all from the same manufacturer, but the FDA is so itching to get their hands on the supplements market that they pulled the plug.

It is available by prescription but getting to a supportive doctor appears to be the core of the problem in this set of threads.

WEll i know there are cautions about self medicating oneself but i got desperate! My head felt like it was swelling and ready to explode. I'm glad i took st john's wort after just one day i already felt a lil better but definitely not superb or great yet. Not even close to the normal mark but definitely i feel a bit of significance.