My sister recently told me she's been taking this stuff as "a natural anti depressant" for the last few weeks.

Do I need to worry about her screwing herself up with it?

(I am already worried about her thinking she needs an anti depressant.)

This guy said it was dangerous stuff during one of his alphabet news group stories of people taking herbs and regular veggies to combat their problems.

www.drdrew.com/

Dave S

Quoted: Very much the same as the drug "PROZAC" and the two should NEVER be taken together.

Well, given that I heard that blurb about prozac increasing chances of suicide in kids I'm going to have to make her cut that shit out right away.

Think of it as Ecinacea for the brain.

Does St John's Wort work, NO!

BUT, it did wonders for me. Just because I always thought I was a dark, brooding, depressed soul all of my life. THEN, when the St John's Wort bullshi'ite was all the rage, I saw so many of my friends rushing out to buy it and I figured out that I was no more depressed than anyone else so I must be OK.

You can find it in the dictionary, it's called a P-L-A-C-E-B-O

Quoted: Quoted: Very much the same as the drug "PROZAC" and the two should NEVER be taken together. Well, given that I heard that blurb about prozac increasing chances of suicide in kids I'm going to have to make her cut that shit out right away.

Dude, I heard that it makes chicks grow dicks.

Chill out.

St. John's Wort isn't Prozac.  As far as I know, they still haven't figured out what it does.  Then again, last time I saw anything about it was maybe five years ago.

It DOES work in SOME people, but its effects are very mild and very inconsistent.  There are no standards in its preparation, so some places use just the flowers of the plant, others chop up the whole plant.  It might even vary from batch to batch -- and even if one batch is effective, the next might not be, depending on how the plants were grown, time of year, etc.

St. John's Wort does have some drug interactions, so if she is taking anything else, she should be sure to let her doctor know about it so that he/she can tell your sister if there is any conflict.

Other than that, it's generally recognized as safe, and has been in use for generations.

If it's working for her, there shouldn't be any harm in it.  Just be sure she informs her doc.