| Warning to Consumers Taking St. John's Wort | |
24-Oct-00
Warning to Consumers Taking St. John's Wort -- It is estimated that one out of five people using prescription anti-depressant medications also take the popular dietary supplement St. John's Wort in hopes of additional mood elevation (JAMA, 1998: 280, pgs. 1569-1575). A new study released at the AAPS Annual Meeting shows that the effect of many prescription medications may be dramatically reduced when combined with St. John's Wort. In fact, this study shows a staggering 50 percent of all prescription and over-the-counter medications, when combined with St. John's Wort, become ineffective. Most at risk are those taking birth control pills, heart medications, antibiotics, sedatives, protease inhibitors (used by AIDS patients) and others.
About AAPS PharmSci
All abstracts presented at the AAPS Annual Meeting are published in a supplement to AAPS PharmSci (www.pharmsci.org), the organization's peer-reviewed, online journal. AAPS PharmSci offers a forum for the rapid exchange and dissemination of scientific knowledge in the pharmaceutical sciences.
About AAPS
AAPS is a professional, scientific society of more than 11,000 members employed in academia, industry, government and other research institutes worldwide. Founded in 1986, AAPS aims to advance science through the open exchange of scientific knowledge, serve as an information resource and contribute to human health through pharmaceutical research and development. For more information about AAPS, visit AAPS online at www.aaps.org.
---American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists
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