Kava Kava May Decrease Anxiety

Kava Kava May Decrease Anxiety

PORTLAND, Ore.--In Healthnotes' Review (HNR) of Complementary and IntegrativeMedicine, a study was published comparing the herb kava kava to benzodiazepines,a category of prescription drugs--such as Xanax--used to treat anxiety, panicattacks and other conditions.

The clinical trial lasted approximately six weeks and involved 173 patients.Patients who received 100 mg of standardized kava extract three times a dayexperienced a decrease in anxiety comparable to patients who tookbenzodiazepines.

"This is the first study to directly compare kava to benzodiazepines inpersons with mild to moderate anxiety," explained Dr. Donald J. Brown,Healthnotes Review's editor in chief and author of Herbal Prescriptions forBetter Health (Prima Publishing, 1996). "The results represent animportant addition to the general knowledge of how kava works and its potentialas a safe and non-addictive therapeutic alternative to benzodiazepines."

The study was conducted at the University of Erlangen-Nurnberg in 1993. Thisis the first time the results, which appear in HNR's Winter 1999 issue, havebeen published in the United States.