Depression remains difficult to manage, despite the many registered treatments available. For many depressed individuals, particularly those who have not responded to and/or had adverse effects from standard therapies, herbal and natural medications represent a potentially valuable alternative. This chapter will review several natural remedies used in the treatment of depression. Specific remedies covered include St. John's wort (SJW), S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAMe), omega-3 fatty acids, rhodiola, and others. We will begin by providing some historical and social context about these remedies. Then we will review efficacy and safety data, as well as biological mechanisms of action of these therapies. Finally, we will discuss the limitations of the current state of knowledge and provide suggestions for a productive research agenda focused on natural remedies. While many questions about these treatments remain unanswered and much work needs to be done before we determine their place in the psychiatric armamentarium, we believe that this chapter will give psychiatrists a good perspective on the pros and cons of herbal and natural antidepressants as part of the pharmacological armamentarium and sensible guidelines on how and when they should be used.
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
3
10%
Nursing and Health Professions
3
10%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
2
6%
Unspecified
1
3%
Other
4
13%
Unknown
10
32%
Attention Score in Context
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 26 August 2018.
All research outputs
#20,530,891
of 23,102,082 outputs
Outputs from Handbook of experimental pharmacology
#574
of 648 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#291,182
of 334,198 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Handbook of experimental pharmacology
#9
of 9 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,102,082 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 648 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 9.4. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 334,198 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 9 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one.
