New St. John's Wort Study Misleads Public

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New St. John's Wort Study Misleads Public

Silver Spring, MD, April 9, 2002 -- A study on the popular herbal remedy St.

John's wort published in the April 10 edition of the Journal of the American

Medical Association (JAMA) concluded that neither St. John's wort nor the widely

prescribed antidepressant Zoloft® are more effective overall than placebo in

treating severe forms of depression. The American Herbal Products Association

(AHPA) and the National Nutritional Foods Association (NNFA) are critical of the

study saying that it ignores the traditional use of St. John's wort and recent

modern clinical trials that have demonstrated conclusively that St. John's wort

is effective in the treatment of " mild to moderate " depression.

 

" This is a quintessential case of the 'Emperor's New Clothes,' " said Steven

Dentali, Ph.D. vice president of scientific and technical affairs for AHPA. " It

is inexplicable that JAMA has created such fanfare over the fact that St. John's

wort is not shown to be effective for a condition that it was never intended to

treat. The real story here is that if this study is believable it showed that a

blockbuster drug, with sales of over $2 billion and prescribed to millions of

Americans for severe forms of depression, may be no more effective than

placebo. "

 

St. John's wort is one of the top five selling herbal products in the United

States and is the number one antidepressant used in Germany for the treatment of

mild to moderate depression. The new multi-million dollar National Institutes of

Health study was conducted on 340 patients diagnosed as having major depression.

The study broke patients into three groups assigning one group to take a leading

brand of St. John's wort, another group to take the anti-depressant

pharmaceutical Zoloft® and the third group a placebo (a sugar pill). The

researchers reported that neither St. John's wort nor Zoloft® were

significantly different from placebo.

 

" This research in no way invalidates the scores of clinical studies and analyses

that have clearly demonstrated that St. John's wort is effective for mild to

moderate depression, " said Phil Harvey, Ph.D., director of science and quality

assurance for NNFA. " In fact, contemporary researchers have found evidence that

St. John's wort extracts are 'therapeutically equivalent to' and 'at least as

effective as' some commonly prescribed antidepressant drugs. Researchers also

note that people have better tolerance for the herb. "

 

Relevant Facts:

According to Web MD, in the U.S., approximately 10% of people suffer from major

depression at any one time, and 20-25% suffer a major depressive episode at some

point during their lifetimes. According to Nutrition Business Journal, St.

John's wort sales in 2000 were $180 million. According to Med Ad News, Zoloft®

is the third best-selling selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor and the leading

antidepressant in terms of share of new prescriptions. According to IMS Health

Inc., 2000 Zoloft® sales reached $2.14 billion.

 

The American Herbal Products Association is one of the botanical industry's

leading trade associations representing herbal product manufacturers and raw

material suppliers. Contact: Robin Gellman, Dir. of Communications: 301-588-1171

ext. 107.

 

The National Nutritional Foods Association is the nation's largest and oldest

non-profit trade organization dedicated to the natural products industry.

Contact: Tracy Taylor: Dir. of Communications: 949-622-6272 ext. 245.

 

 

http://www.ahpa.org/pr_040902.htm

 

 

 

 

 

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