St. John’s Wort vs Prozac

Researchers at Adelaide University compared the reported adverse drug reactions to St. John’s wort, an herbal treatment for depression, with fluoxetine, a prescription antidepressant which includes Prozac.

It found both can cause serious side effects such as dangerous increases in body temperature and blood pressure. Both treatments also caused side effects such as anxiety, panic attacks, dizziness, vomiting, amnesia and aggression.

“There is a common belief that because something is natural and can be purchased from a health food shop without a prescription, it’s safe,” says researcher Claire Hoban.

“People need to start thinking of St. John’s wort, and other herbal medicines, as a drug and seek advice from a qualified healthcare practitioner to be sure they use it safely,” she says.

Between 2000 and 2013, there were 84 reports of adverse reactions to St. John’s wort and 447 to fluoxetine, [notes] the study published in Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology.

Fewer people use St. John’s wort and adverse reactions for herbal medicines largely go unreported because they are not considered drugs, say Hoban.

There were more severe reactions to St. John’s wort, 11.9% of reports compared to 6.7% for Prozac.
The big concern is using St. John’s wort and prescription antidepressants together because this can lead to serotonin syndrome inducing gastrointestinal upsets, hemorrhage, confusion, inattention and even death, she said.

Common Antidepressants Linked to Higher Fracture Odds in Menopausal Women

Women prescribed a common class of antidepressants to ease menopausal symptoms may face a long-term rise in theirs for bone fracture, a new study suggests.

The antidepressants in question are selective serotonin eruptive inhibitors (SSRI) medications such as Celexa, Paxil, Prozac and Zoloft.

Besides being used to treat depression, these drugs are often prescribed as an alternative to hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to tackle hot flashes, night sweats and other problems that can accompany menopause.

However, “SSRIs appear to increase fracture risk among middle aged women without psychiatric disorders,” wrote a team led by Dr. Matthew Miller of Northeastern University in Boston.

The team added that the effect seems to be “sustained over time, suggesting that shorter duration of treatment may decrease [this effect].”

Findings from the study were published June 25 in the journal Injury Prevention.

Researchers sifted through data from the PharMetrics Claims Database, which collects information on drug treatments involving roughly 61 million patients nationally. They focused on more than 137,000 women between the ages of 40 and 64, all of whom began SSRI treatment at some point between 1998 and 2010.

They found that women in the SSRI group faced a 76% higher risk for fracture after a single year of SSRI use, compared with the non-SSRI group.

Dangerous Dietary Supplements Return to Store Shelves

The FDA frequently recalls dietary supplements that are found to contain banned substances. But a new study suggests that many of these products return to store shelves months later with the same dangerous ingredients.

The study, published in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that out of more than two dozen supplements that were pulled from shelves after that were found to contain anabolic steroids or powerful prescription drugs, roughly two-thirds were back on the market a year later with the same illicit ingredients.
Most of the supplements were marketed for weight loss, exercise and sexual enhancement, and they were sold across the country at convenience stores, in health food shops and over the Internet. They were found to contain steroids and prescription drugs like Viagra and Prozac, an antidepressant.

The study also found that several of the weight-loss products contained Sibutramine, an amphetamine-like drug that was removed from the market in the US, Asia and Europe after a clinical trial showed it increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

In recent years, research has shown that herbal supplements such as echinacea, Ginkgo biloba and St. John’s wort are frequently mislabeled or diluted with cheap fillers like powdered rice.

Jennifer Dorren, a spokeswoman for the FDA, said that supplement companies “are legally responsible for marketing a safe product that is not adulterated.” But because companies do not need approval to sell their products, she said, the agency cannot identify tainted supplements before they reach consumers.