Why don't doctors ever talk about 5-HTP or St. John's Wort for depression?

I've found that 5-HTP works way better for me than say Zoloft or any of the other prescribed anti-depressants. If I had known about 5-HTP back in my teen years, none of my emotional problems would have ever surfaced and I would have saved my friends and family a lot of grief.

If I had one wish, it would be to go back in time and tell myself about 5-HTP earlier.

Hello, TheTrade. Have you asked a doctor about 5-HTP or St. John's Wort?

5-HTP: Uses, Side Effects, Interactions and Warnings - WebMD
St. John's Wort For Depression Treatment

Based on personal experience, 5-HTP works way better for me....I haven't personally asked a doctor about it, but a lot of doctors have written books about its benefits, such as Dr. Ray Sahelian. Also, St. John's Wort outsells Prozac in Germany.

I haven't been going to a doctor for depression for over a decade now. Depression still strikes once in a while, but it's not as bad as when I was on prescribed anti-depressants.

All I know with st. John's Wort is to make sure no other medicine interactions will happen, and that you don't have any health issues that can be made worse. Than go for it!

I tried St. Johns Wort for a long time and it didn't do anything. I think it is too mild.

I understand 5HTP is much more potent in producing serotonin and melatonin. I have not tried it. I am not sure it is safe if you are already taking a SSNRI

St. John's Wort can make birth control ineffective and increase light sensitivity. But it has worked for me. I was severely depressed when I started taking SJW and it made a huge difference. I started taking too much of it because I hadn't ever felt good before as long as I could remember, and I went hypomanic a couple of times. It's been over 10 years now and it is not so dramatic an effect anymore, but I still think I am better on SJW than off of it. And no side effects that bother me. Zoloft was awful. It might have worked, but it was painful because of the side effects and some didn't stop until I had been off of it for two years.

Doctors in the U.S. are taught that herbs are unreliable because they are not standardized precisely like prescriptions. In other words, there are no pharmaceutical companies promoting them and passing out literature, and not that much money to be made from herbs unless the pharma companies are altering them in a way that can be patented, so it's unfamiliar to doctors and they don't trust what they can't control. My sister, who is a psychiatrist, wouldn't let me give her kids chamomile to calm them down. She gets very nervous about any herb that I mention, not because they don't work but because it is not precise and controllable.

This reminds me of one of my favorite Bill Maher quotes (he's talking about the War on Drugs(tm), but I think it applies here too): "The government is waging war on evil plants. How do we know they're evil? Because they don't have Pfizer or Eli Lilly or Bristol-Myers Squibb written on them!"

actually, if you look into it, herbal and supplement companies are a major lobbying force in the US to keep themselves from being regulated. the FDA literally has almost zero power over them at all. they can pretty much tell you whatever they want about the herb with a small tiny disclaimer. they've even found that what some supplements claim is in there actually isn't. i suggest the book do you believe in magic? the sense and nonsense of alternative medicine.

i know it's all the rage to assume 'big pharma' is in some grand cahoots with the gov't but 'big herbal' just loooooves the fact that no one is watching over its shoulder.

Bleh, I live in the EU and they loooooooooooooooooooooooooooove to regulate the herbs. I bet if they had the power they had snipers by woods and meadows to make sure nobody is picking stuff there.

SJW works wonders for me but I have to be careful with it, too much can make me hypomanic. As for photosensitivity, I have it when I take the raw herb, but not with tinctures.

Is she giving them pharmaceuticals? O-o

I hear the argument about dosages a lot, some prefer herbs in pills, but you lose so much potency that way, because they been exposed to light and air... I prefer to pick my own or buy teas from reliable source.

Big Pharma will never invest money into research on them because you cannot patent a naturally occurring substance. There is not money in it for them so they won't do it. That basically leaves universities to do real studies on it.

Its not that there isn't money in it though. The supplement business is huge business. I trust the studies and doctors pushing them less than big pharma by a long shot. Stay up late one night and watch all the infomercials on supplements and all the claims.

Herbs and supplements can be as powerful as any drugs and we should get as much valid info on them as we can before taking them.

I am certainly not against taking them. I take fish oil, vitamin D, Melatonin. I have taken SamE and L Methylfolate. If I wasn't on an SSNRI I would try 5HTP

i do think it's important to note that some of the supplement/vitamin companies *are* owned by pharmaceutical companies. One-a-Day for example is owned by... Bayer. So it's not true that "big pharma" is totally ignoring them. they're actually selling them to you. there's just zero regulation of them in the us whereas pharmaceutical drugs have to go through some kind of accountability. it's not a perfect process but i'll take at least *some* oversight over none.

It is not so much regulation as where's the money to do studies on them? Look at the mushroom business; there are a lot of poisonous ones out there but the regulation is on what is being bought/sold, not mushrooms themselves. "Food", which herbs are, is different. There are research studies starting on 5 HTP NYU Langone Medical Center but the T stands for L-Tryptophan and there's a "Peak X" factor in there that killed lots of people in the 1980s. The public likes to jump on every bandwagon going and then get mad at the regulators when people start dying.

One can't have it both ways, irresponsible word-of-mouth, "my-friend-Shelia's-first-cousin-twice-removed-Joey-says. . ." or, "I got this in an email. . ." and yelling at drug companies to hurry up and get drugs on the market to "save lives" and then blaming someone else when one's health is damaged. I don't know which I feel is worse, the supplement ads on TV claiming to cure all that I don't know is wrong with me but worry could be or the lawyer ads if you have had a "transvaginal mesh, bladder mesh, pelvic sling and bladder sling" operation gone wrong or taken a "bad" drug. Don't forget, time to file claims is running out!