Short-term open-label chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L.) therapy of moderate to severe generalized anxiety disorder

Since chamomile had shown its efficacy vs. placebo in people with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) in a previous study, Keefe et al. (2016) conducted this randomized controlled trial of chamomile versus placebo for relapse-prevention of recurrent GAD. The patients with moderate to severe generalized anxiety disorder were randomly chosen to take 1500mg of chamomile extract daily for up to 8 weeks. Of the 179 subjects, 58.1% showed clinical response while 15.6% prematurely discontinued treatment. Symptom severity was also reported to have decreased over time (indicated by GAD-7 rating). Moreover, the secondary outcomes (that marked anxiety and well-being) improved in a statistically significant and clinically meaningful way. Adverse events occurred in 11.7% of the sample, although there was no serious side effect. To summarize, chamomile extract reduced the generalized anxiety disorder symptoms over 8 weeks at a rate comparable to those observed during conventional anxiolytic drug therapy and demonstrated a better safety profile. [NPID: herbs, alternative, complementary, anxiolytic, botanical, Chamomile, GAD, herbal]

Year: 2016

Reference: Keefe, J. R., Mao, J. J., Soeller, I., Li, Q. S., & Amsterdam, J. D. (2016). Short-term open-label chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L.) therapy of moderate to severe generalized anxiety disorder. Phytomedicine : international journal of phytotherapy and phytopharmacology, 23(14), 1699–1705. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phymed.2016.10.013