Herbal medicines in the treatment of psychiatric disorders: 10‐year updated review

Abstract

This paper provides a 10-year update of the 2007 systematic review of herbal medicines studied in a broad range of psychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, seasonal affective, bipolar, psychotic, phobic, somatoform, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorders. Ovid Medline, PubMed, and the Cochrane Library were searched for herbal medicines with both pharmacological and clinical evidence of psychotropic activity. This updated review now covers clinical trial evidence for 24 herbal medicines in 11 psychiatric disorders. High-quality evidence was found to exist for the use of Piper methysticum (Kava), Passiflora spp. (passionflower) and Galphimia glauca (galphimia) for anxiety disorders; and Hypericum perforatum (St John's wort) and Crocus sativus (saffron) for major depressive disorder. Other encouraging herbal medicines with preliminary evidence include Curcuma longa (turmeric) in depression, Withania somnifera (ashwagandha) in affective disorders, and Ginkgo biloba (ginkgo) as an adjunctive treatment in Schizophrenia. Although depression and anxiety are commonly researched, many other mental disorders still require further prospective investigation. Although the previous review suggested increasing the adjunctive study of select herbal medicines with pharmaceuticals, this was still only found to sparingly occur in research designs. Aside from this, future focus should involve the incorporation of more biomarker analysis, in particular pharmacogenomics, to determine genetic factors moderating response to herbal medicines.

GABA‐modulating phytomedicines for anxiety: A systematic review of preclinical and clinical evidence

“…Despite the increased use of phytomedicines, with up to 80% of the world's population using some form of herbal medicine (World Health Organization, ), most still lack rigorous investigations of clinical efficacy. This is a common observation from previous reviews of CNS mechanisms of phytomedicines for affective disorders (including GAD) (Ernst, ; Lakhan & Vieira, ; Liu et al, ; Sarris, ). In particular, there are a paucity of clinical investigations for phytomedicine use in the treatment of GAD, especially given the epidemiological prevalence of this particular disorder (Australian Bureau of Statistics, ; Wittchen et al, ).…”

“…Despite the increased use of phytomedicines, with up to 80% of the world's population using some form of herbal medicine (World Health Organization, 2003), most still lack rigorous investigations of clinical efficacy. This is a common observation from previous reviews of CNS mechanisms of phytomedicines for affective disorders (including GAD) (Ernst, 2006;Lakhan & Vieira, 2010;Liu et al, 2015;Sarris, 2007 H. lupulus, S. lateriflora, and M. officinalis also have some promising preclinical evidence, along with human studies of anxiolytic effects in people experiencing stress and anxiety symptoms. However, the lack of evidence showing significant effects in patients with diagnosed anxiety disorders means that the clinical utility of these particular…”

Yeni Çalışmalar Işığında Hypericum Türlerinin Farmakolojik Aktiviteleri

“…Antidepresan Etki H. perforatum türünün majör depresif bozukluk, dikkat eksikliği ve hiperaktivite bozukluğu, sosyal fobi, obsesif kompulsif bozukluk, distimik bozukluk, somatoform bozukluklar, anksiyöz depresyon ve mevsimsel affektif bozukluk gibi çok farklı psikiyatrik rahatsızlıklarda etkili olduğunu gösteren birçok çalışma mevcuttur. 12…”

Anxiety disorders: Where do we stand now? Current medicamentous treatment knowledge and future perspectives

“…Due to the ever-increasing number of phytotherapeutic preparations possessing upright clinical evidence, the role of herbal medicines in the treatment of psychiatric disorders has become customary over the past years (34). These alternative products appear to be safer than traditional pharmacotherapy, with lower adverse effect occurrence rates (35).…”