Alternative To Prozac Effective with Fewer Side Effects and Lower Cost Depression strikes approximately 11 million Americans each year. According to a multinational study, each generation appears to have a greater risk of suffering from depression. Reasons for this increase in depression include reduction in marital stability, increased drug and alcohol abuse and urbanization. However, men are three times as likely as women to develop alcoholism and the suicide rate for males is four times greater, behaviors inextricably linked to depression. Perhaps men and women just handle depression differently.
Men are more likely to turn to alcohol or suicide.
Antidepressant drugs are designed to correct or lessen suspected imbalances in the monoamines serotonin, melatonin, dopamine, adrenaline and noradrenaline. John's Wort . . . St. John's Wort seems to do the job of both the SSRIs and the MAOIs, without the side effects of either. However, researchers believe that the exact manner in which St. John's Wort inhibits serotonin uptake is undoubtedly different from that of the drugs Prozac, Effaxor, Paxil and Zoloft. In comparison studies St. John's Wort proved to be as effective as the conventional antidepressant drugs, but with far fewer and less severe side effects.