Note to woo-woos, St. Johns Wort is just another SSRI!

[frankie]

1. Yep

Many natural medicinal substances are unrefined equivalents to modern pharmaceuticals. The obvious example is willow bark == unrefined aspirin.

They're typically lower dose, so they'll have weaker effects (and probably weaker side effects), but you're also ingesting whatever other chemicals are found in the plant, which may be good, bad, or inert. Plus whatever else they choose to add to the pill, because "natural" remedies aren't FDA regulated so really they could contain pretty much anything (except for known meds).

Then remember the placebo effect...