Thinking of weaning myself of ADs and switching to St John's Wort. Advice?

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Have already been reducing my fluoxetine dose to every other day, but wonder if anyone else has ever switched from ADs to St John's Wort and - if so - whether they found it as effective? Not worried about effect on contraceptive pill as not on it. Many thanks in advance for any tips.

You need proper medical advice as st johns wort interacts with lots of different medications not just the pill and isn't suitable for everyone.

this page gives an overview.

Thanks for that, Auntie. Will have a read. Not on any other medication, though, which is why I thought it would probably be safe to try.

Hmm - seems to say can react badly with fluoxetine - which rather puts paid to my plan to reduce one and replace with the other. May need to come off the fluoxetine completely before starting the SJW (if I do at all).

That's why you need to get professional advice - its apparently quite strong and you need it on record if you are taking it in case you need emergency care for any reason.

Please don't muck around with your ADs , its great if you feel in a good place to come off them but yr GP will need to know to support you properly.

Holey - sorry am probably being hugely dense, but what you do you mean by 'half lives'? And do you think my approach of gradually reducing the fluox to every other day - then a couple of weeks later every 3 days etc is sensible? I know I shld go to GP, but such a nightmare getting appt just thought I'd do it myself. Have been on and off them a few times so not new to process as such. But first time I'd considered switching to SJW. May run that by the GP in due course. But in the meantime, sounds like I need to focus on coming off the F fully before even considering the SJW. Good time of year for it.

My advice would be don't do it, especially straight away. The general advice is not to take SJW within two weeks (at least) of finishing or starting SSRI anti-depressants. SJW works on the seretonin system so IF if works IF! then it will give similar effects to that of fluoxetine anyway.

A half life refers to how long it takes for the medication (in this case) to reach half of its original concentration in the blood - because of the way things break down this is more of an accurate measure than saying when it has actually gone. So it will reduce more quickly at the begning and as it goes down the curve becomes less steep with less of a change each day.

If you are wanting to go AD free, could you possible follow an exercise based routine? this would probably be more effective than SJW in helping your body produce the hormones needed to feel calmer and really helps me with my anxiety. I also find Bach's rescue remedy works really well for acute anxiety and recenty discovered cammomile tea, that actually works better than diazepam (valium) for me!I was quite surprised by that

That is interesting about the long half lives of the fluox, i am on citalopram (i dont think the half life is as long) but have come off it in the past and used the every other day method - but really considering the half life thing, thats probably not the best approach. Food for thought there - thanks

I wouldn't bother, you can no longer get SJW in a standardised dose. Everything now on sale in the UK is sold as a 'food supplement' so you have no idea how much you are taking of the active ingredient(s) - I doubt any of them contain enough for a therapeutic dose.

It would be worth a try for someone who is very mildly depressed or experiencing 'low mood' and fancies trying something else before heading to the GP but if you are already on ADs I don't think it would be an adequate replacement.

And yes, don't mix them.

So a short half life is good or bad?

I sometimes forget to take my citalopram - after a couple of days i feel bad, that is obviously why - can't believe i dind't put that together in my head! but fluoxetine would be more forgiving it would seem.

If you want to stop taking the medication, talk to GP first, as a gradually approach is usually recommended.

dianne