Have you ever found commercials to be so off-putting that it detracted you from what the commercial was trying to promote or convey through its message?

I find this to be the case in virtually every commercial that flashes on television promoting the latest newfangled anti-depressant, heart medication or male potency drug: There is a small message about what the drug is designed to do – immediately followed by the addendum to “consult your doctor first” – followed by a babblative, fast-talking narrator that lists off what seems to be every side-effect known to man, woman and child (from the humorous “oily discharge and an inability to control it” to the serious “sudden death.”) Someone should do a content analysis of these commercials to see how much time is devoted to the potential benefits of taking the medication compared to the time devoted to the potential costs (my bet’s on the costs winning out).

Any marketing adviser will tell you that such an advertisement makes for bad business. After all, how often do you see a politician telling his constituents how bad he might be if elected to office (this wouldn’t be such a bad idea, come to think of it)? But amazingly, the pharmaceutical industry – particularly the anti-depressant industry – is booming, despite the side-effects they readily admit to.

Anti-depressants like Prozac, Zoloft, and Lexapro (the three most commonly prescribed anti-depressants in America, though not in that order) are by far the most frequently prescribed medications today. The frequency with which their prescribed extends beyond the Americas. In Britain, for example, the rate at which antidepressants were prescribed increased 234 percent between 1992 and 2002. In British Columbia, the rate of use more than doubled in an eight year span. France and the Netherlands show similar trends regarding antidepressant use as well.

For years now, I’ve been advocating the use of St. John’s wort as an alternative to anti-depressants. Anti-depressants work for some people, there’s no doubt, but I believe St. John’s wort to be just as effective as the 30 million prescriptions of Zoloft given out last year alone. A new study on this backs me up.

About 5,500 cases of people suffering from depression were studied by the Cochrane Foundation of Medical Research. Using what’s called a Hamilton Depression Scale, which is essentially a questionnaire used regularly by clinicians to assess one’s depressed state, the researchers determined the severity of each person’s depression and what treatments they were using.

When it came time to compare those using St. John’s wort to a pharmaceutical giant’s treatment, those using the St. John’s wort showed similar results from their respective treatments (including those experiencing major depression cases). What’s more, there were fewer cases of people discontinuing their use of St. John’s wort compared to other treatments because there were no side effects.

It boggles my mind why St. John’s wort is not used more frequently. People can avoid the unnecessary costs associated with anti-depressants – both fiscally and mentally – while securing a new lease on life.