Abstract
St John’s wort is a herb commonly used to alleviate mild depression. In addition to depression, it is also said to relieve nerve pain, seasonal affective disorder and panic attacks. With a history and mythology that dates back almost 2000 years, St John’s wort is widely used in Europe. In Germany, where the herb is listed in the German Drug Codex, approved as a medicine in the Commission E monographs and licensed as a standard medicinal tea infusion, doctors write three million prescriptions annually for the herbal remedy; it outsells Prozac by more than ten to one.1
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Notes
JA Austin, ‘Why Patients use Alternative Medicine: Results of a National Study’, Journal of the American Medical Association, 279: 1548–53, 1998.
M. Angell and J. Kassirer, ‘Alternative Medicine — The Risks of Untested and Unregulated Remedies’, New England Journal of Medicine, 339: 839–41, 1998.
JA Austin, ‘Why Patients use Alternative Medicine: Results of a National Study’, Journal of the American Medical Association, 279: 1548–53, 1998.
R. Happle ‘The Essence of Alternative Medicine: A Dermatologist’s View from Germany’, Archives of Dermatology, 134: 1455–60, 1998.
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© 2001 Patricia Tan
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Tan, P. (2001). Complementary and alternative medicines. In: Blackett, T., Robins, R. (eds) Brand Medicine. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230522510_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230522510_18
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