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April 15, 2024
By Joie Meissner ND, BCB-L
It makes sense to look at the risks and benefits of supplement use in the context of the risks and benefits of other treatments for depression, anxiety and insomnia.
For example, at my clinic, I use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia, which often cures the problem and doesn’t rely on any substance to work. But if you’re considering taking Ambien or another prescription med to get a night’s sleep, tart cherry juice provides a much safer alternative.
Keep in mind that nothing you can swallow will cure insomnia. Doctors routinely prescribe SSRIs like Zoloft and Lexapro for people with depression or anxiety. But there’s a major controversy surrounding how safe and effective SSRIs are for depression with a number of researchers calling into question their efficacy. “Our results show that the harmful effects of SSRIs versus placebo for major depressive disorder seem to outweigh any potentially small beneficial effects,” concluded a 2017 systematic review of every available randomized clinical trial of six commonly prescribed SSRIs including unpubished trials in U.S. FDA and European Medicines Agency files.1
St. John’s wort, with a lower risk of harm than SSRIs, might be worth considering as an alternative for depression. But St. John’s wort has its own drawbacks. It negatively interacts with numerous prescription medications, meaning it’s not an option for a lot of people
Instead, gold-standard talk therapy approaches have proven to be more efficacious for depression than pharmaceuticals and supplements. For example, cognitive behavioral therapy, along with other adjunctive treatments such as biofeedback and light therapy, have been shown to be efficacious. None of these treatments carry potentially dangerous drug side effects.
For people living with anxiety, it might be tempting to get relief from an SSRI, a benzodiazepines like Xanax or Valium, or a supplement like kava or full-spectrum CBD (cannabis). SSRIs carry risk with small to moderate benefits. Benzodiazepines are even riskier than SSRIs. Kava may cause liver damage. And the efficacy and long-term safety of CBD remains an open question for research.
More to the point, using drugs or supplements can make anxiety worse in the long run. Proven talk therapy approaches like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) treat anxiety without drugs or supplements along with a variety of supportive therapies like Biofeedback-Assisted Relaxation Therapy and hypnotherapy for stress management. And because there are estimates of up to 45% of depression cases and 30% of anxiety cases having definitive physiological causes, I screen for common ones including nutritional deficiencies by reviewing your past labs or ordering new ones. 2
My philosophy is that for experimental treatments such as supplements that carry a risk of negative side-effects, patients as well as the general public need unbiased information about the level of evidence available for such treatments as well as their possible risks and benefits. Without such an understanding, people cannot make informed decisions about supplements.
Though it is not possible to present information about all supplements used by people with these conditions, the Mood Change Medicine website offers information, without a paywall, about some of the most popular ones.
Mood Change Medicine has elected not to sell supplements so that we can provide unbiased information about them.
Mood Change Medicine offers what I believe to be more effective ways than supplementation to treat anxiety, depression and insomnia that don’t carry the risk of medication interactions or side effects that supplements do.
Though supplement advice is not the focus of the practice, I will provide information about supplements—including the higher quality products on the market—to patients who ask for such information. I believe it is your choice what you want to put in your body and that to make an informed choice you need unbiased information.
I seek to provide you with informed guidance by presenting options with the intent of bolstering your independence and personal sense of competence.
The article below concludes with links to a number of other articles on the most popular supplements used in anxiety and depression. These articles review the safety and efficacy of specific supplements for anxiety and depression:
The article below concludes with links to a number of other articles on the most popular supplements used in insomnia. These articles review the safety and efficacy of specific supplements for insomnia:
Care informed by the understanding that emotional and physical wellbeing are deeply connected
Citations
- Jacobsen, J.C., Katakam, K.K., Schou, A. et al. “Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors versus placebo in patients with major depressive disorder. A systematic review with meta-analysis and Trial Sequential Analysis.” BMC Psychiatry. 17, 58 (2017). doi.org/10.1186/s12888-016-1173-2 ↩︎
- Siegmann EM, Müller HHO, Luecke C, Philipsen A, Kornhuber J, Grömer TW. “Association of Depression and Anxiety Disorders With Autoimmune Thyroiditis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.” JAMA Psychiatry. 2018 Jun 1;75(6):577-584. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2018.0190. Erratum in: JAMA Psychiatry. 2019 Jun 19;: PMID: 29800939; PMCID: PMC6137529. ↩︎
By using this website, you agree to accept MoodChangeMedicine.com website’s terms of use, which can be viewed here.
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