Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a subgroup of major depression and characterized
by a regular occurrence of symptoms in autumn/winter and full remission or hypomania
in spring/summer. Light therapy (LT) and recently pharmacotherapy with specific antidepressants
have been shown to be beneficial. Within the array of pharmacotherapy hypericum extract
has also been found to be effective in a single-blind study (Martinez et al., 1994).
In this 4 weeks treatment study 900 mg of hypericum was associated with a significant
reduction in the total score of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. There was no
significant difference when bright light therapy was combined with hypericum, compared
to the situation without bright light therapy. Overall, hypericum was well tolerated
and therefore the data suggest that pharmacological treatment with hypericum may be
an efficient therapy in patients with SAD, which needs to be substantiated in further
controlled studies.
