St John's wort (Hypericum perforatum) versus sertraline and placebo in major depressive disorder: continuation data from a 26-week RCT.
Pharmacopsychiatry
; 45(7): 275-8, 2012 Nov.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-22592504
ABSTRACT
Hypericum perforatum (St John's wort SJW) has been extensively studied as an antidepressant in short-term trials, however little research has been conducted on longer-term efficacy.Our objective was to analyze the continuation data from a 26-week randomized, double-blind, controlled study of SJW (LI-160) vs. sertraline and placebo in major depressive disorder. 124 participant "responders" continued treatment after week 8, until week 26. They continued randomly assigned SJW (900-1 500 mg), sertraline (50-100 mg) or matching placebo.At week 26, on the primary outcome, Hamilton depression rating scale (HAM-D) completer scores were SJW (6.6±4.5), sertraline (7.1±5.4) and placebo (5.7±5.4) with a significant effect for time (p=0.036). Comparisons between all treatments were however non-significant (p=0.61). This effect was mirrored on the other outcomes:
the BDI, CGI-severity, CGI-improvement, and on intention-to-treat analyses.While the continuation data revealed an equivocal outcome between treatments at week 26, both SJW and sertraline were still therapeutically effective, with a pronounced "placebo-effect" impeding a significant result at week 26.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Placebos
/
Plant Extracts
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Sertraline
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Depressive Disorder, Major
Type of study:
Clinical_trials
Limits:
Adult
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Female
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Humans
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Male
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Middle aged
Language:
En
Journal:
Pharmacopsychiatry
Year:
2012
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Australia