depression from treatment

is saint john's wort safe to use to treat depression while taking pegintron and ribavirin?

[pooh55811]

I don't know if taking pegintron and ribavirin with St. John's Wort is safe or not.

One thing I do know is that you cannot take St. John's Wort if you are taking Incivek (one of the new drugs used to treat Genotype 1).

http://www.drugs.com/interactions-check.php?drug_list=1806-0,2009-0,2106-0,3328-15346

Your question is a question you should be discussing with your treating doctor.

Your treating doctor should also know if you are getting depressed while on treatment since Interferon can cause depression.

If you are not yet on treatment, you should still discuss this with your treating doctor.

If you are depressed or have a history of depression you probably should see a psychiatrist for evaluation and treatment. It is better to start antidepressants before starting treatment because they take 3-4 weeks (or longer) to get the full effect of the antidepressant.

Here are a couple sites that might have some helpful information:

http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4673379_st-johns-wort-work.html

http://depression.emedtv.com/st.-john's-wort/does-st.-john's-wort-work.html

Best of luck.

[indy531]

No it is not to be taken under any circumstances-severe and deadly drug interactions. There are other AD's available.

[orphanedhawk]

No. You just hit one of the big nos.

St. John's wort is one thing even my herbalist said not to take while doing interferon.

But medicinal cannabis is okay if that works for you :)

[James10500]

Get serious about it and get some Zoloft. These drugs put you in a state of depression by design.

[Tekelcat]

Absolutely not.