This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related articles  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

To the Editor: In her Clinical Crossroads article, Dr Parry¹ neglected 2 points. First, Thys-Jacobs et al² reported that economical calcium supplementation (Tums E-X) reduced core premenstrual syndrome symptoms of negative affect by 48% in 466 patients. Neither the history nor discussion by Parry shed more light on this possible dietary variable and its interplay with this complex neurohormonal scenario.³ If the patient is now "kindling," this supplement could have been appropriate and, possibly, protective 2 to 3 years ago.

Second and of more concern is that St John's wort, a medicine used widely in Europe, was perhaps misrepresented. The National Institutes of Health are redundantly validating the experiences of clinicians.⁴ St John's wort was referred to by the consultant as a dangerous, "ineffective" agent because of "MAO [monoamine oxidase] inhibitor" action.¹ The source of this information about Hypericum perforatum (Greek, "to overcome an apparition") is unreferenced and perhaps overlooks . . . [Full Text of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

RELATED ARTICLES

A 45-Year-Old Woman With Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder
Barbara L. Parry
JAMA. 1999;281(4):368-373.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

A Structured Teaching and Self-management Program for Patients Receiving Oral Anticoagulation: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Peter T. Sawicki and for the Working Group for the Study of Patient Self-Management of Oral Anticoagulation
JAMA. 1999;281(2):145-150.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT