Posted: 29-May-2003
BETHESDA, MD.-The National Institutes of Health recently launched a four-year study to compare the effectiveness of St. John's wort against a standard antidepressant in the treatment of minor depression.

The $4 million study is a collaboration between the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) and NIH's Office of Dietary Supplements.

The study is being conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, and the University of Pittsburgh.

Researchers are enrolling a total of 300 participants with minor depression who will be randomly assigned to receive treatments of either St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum), the standard antidepressant drug citalopram, or a placebo.

The first 12 weeks of the study will be a double-blind trial in which the study investigators will examine changes in patients' symptoms, level of functioning and quality of life.

Patients who show improvement during the first 12 weeks will continue with their assigned treatment for an additional 14 weeks, according to NIH. Those patients who do not show improvement will receive an active treatment that they had not been using before.

Study participants will be withdrawn from all psychotropic medications during the initial two weeks of the study.

"If the trial demonstrates that citalopram or St. John's wort benefits patients with minor depression, it will expand our understanding of this underrecognized mood disorder and offer new evidence-based treatment recommendations for either primary care or mental health clinicians," said Dr. Matthew Rudorfer, associate director of treatment research in the division of services and intervention research at NIMH.

Minor depression affects about 7.5 per cent of Americans at some point in their lives, NIH estimates. However, the disorder can go undiagnosed and untreated, which is problematic becasue, in addition to impairing a person's functioning, it is also a risk factor for major depression.

Minor depression is marked by the same symptoms as major depression- depressed mood nearly every day, decreased interest in daily activities, and some symptoms like loss of sleep, weight changes, fatigue, guilty feelings, indecisiveness and thoughts of death. With minor depression, however, the symptoms are fewer in number and cause less impairment, according to NIH.

Participants in the study must be men and women between the ages of 18 and 85 who meet the criteria for minor depression. Their depressive symptoms must have lasted for at least six months but less than two years continuously and they must not meet the criteria for major depression.

Participants will also be excluded from the study, according to NIH, if they have other mental disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or anxiety and substance abuse disorders. Individuals will also not be eligible to participate in the study if they have certain physical illnesses.

All materials copyright 2000-2004, U.S. Medicine, Inc.

http://www.usmedicine.com/dailyNews.cfm?dailyID=148

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