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ORLANDO, Fla., Mar 12 (Reuters Health) - Combining St. John's wort with prescription drugs can be dangerous, reported Dr. George Dresser at the annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.
Dresser, of the University of Western Ontario in Canada, and colleagues administered midazolam, a sedative, to 10 healthy volunteers before and after a 12-day treatment with the popular herbal antidepressant St. John's wort. The investigators found that the herbal product decreased blood levels of midazolam by 60%.
The finding has implications for other drugs that are processed in the same way as midazolam, Dresser said.
"You can expect that for as many as half of the drugs in common use, lower levels would result when they're taken with St. John's wort," Dresser told Reuters Health.
On the other hand, initial drug levels will rise if St. John's wort is taken at the same time as another drug, Dresser said.
"I would suggest patients not take their drugs together with St. John's wort. That's definitely a no-no," he said.
What the study showed is that patients "definitely need to discuss their use of all herbals, and especially St. John's wort, with their physicians," Dresser said.
"They need to be aware that if they're taking St. John's wort on a regular basis, that it can reduce the level of drug that's getting into their system in many cases," he noted. "They need to discuss this with their physician to decide whether their drug happens to be one of these drugs that is likely to be reduced in level by taking St. John's wort."
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