Clinical trial on Neurapas® versus placebo in patients with mild to moderate depressive symptoms: a placebo-controlled, randomised double-blind study Phase IV: Clinical trial

St John's wort for depression--an overview and meta-analysis of randomised clinical trials

“…We originally identified 37 randomised or possibly randomised trials that evaluated preparations containing extracts of hypericum (V Wienert et al, third phytotherapy congress, Lubeck-Travemunde, 1991; M Bernhardt et al, fifth phytotherapy congress, Bonn, 1993) 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45. Most of the trials were identified through reviews (especially through that of Harrer and Schulz46), bibliographies of papers, and the complementary database Phytodok, while our original online and CD-ROM searches in Medline, Embase, Psychlit, and Psychindex revealed less than one third of the trials.…”

“…Fifteen trials with 1008 patients were placebo controlled (14 on single preparations,11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 one on a combination with four other plant extracts25) and eight trials (six on single preparations26 27 28 29 30 31 and two on a combination of hypericum and valeriana32 33) with 749 patients compared hypericum with other antidepressant or sedative drugs. With the exception of two trials,30 31 all had treatment and observation periods of four to eight weeks.…”

“…Ten trials scored 80% or more of possible points in both of the assessment systems used 11 12 15 16 19 24 25 27 29 32. For seven trials there was an explicit statement in the published reports that concealment of randomisation was done by consecutively numbered preparations; for a further 10 trials this information was obtained from the authors or the sponsors.…”

St. John's Wort

“…In two studies reporting successful outcome, the preparation studied combined Hypericum with Valerian extract, an herbal with psychotropic properties of its own [40,41]. Another botanical (Neurapas) reported to be effective in a double blind study contained Hypericum, Valerian, corydalis, and Papaver californicum (California poppy), which obscured which of the ingredients were responsible for the therapeutic effect [42]. The duration of the depressions and number of prior episodes were not explicated.…”

St. John’s Wort – an Overview

“…A short report described positive findings from two trials in patients with herpes simplex genitalis and labialis [69]. Randomized trials also exist for combinations of Black Cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa) and St. John's wort for climacteric complaints [70] and for a variety of combinations in depression or anxiety [71][72][73]. For other conditions only smaller observational studies or anecdotal evidence are available [10].…”