HOW CAN I MONITOR MY RESPONSE TO ST JOHN’S WORT?
Depression is by its very nature a discouraging condition and the response to anti-depressants in general is often not smooth and linear. Your mood can bob up and down and it may be hard to tell just where you are compared to where you were before you started treatment. In my practice I have used a very simple way to help my patients monitor their mood over time. Just as when you diet it is helpful to weigh yourself regularly so as to see the pattern of response, so it can be very helpful to chart your mood on a daily basis after you start a new type of anti-depressant treatment. And just as when you diet you can gain a pound or two on a particular day, perhaps as a result of water retention, even though you are succeeding in losing weight over the long run, so it is possible to have one or two bad days even though your mood may be better overall. Being able to refer to the chart is helpful in illustrating this overall improvement. Alternatively, if you are not improving, you might be inclined to try and kid yourself that you are. Referring to the chart may reveal this not to be so and prompt you to shift your strategy in finding a different way out of your depression.
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